


HUMANOID 2.0

by kyoloren



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Angst, Blood and Gore, Canonical Character Death, Canonical Manipulation and Abuse, Cyberpunk, F/M, Futuristic prosthetics, Grief/Mourning, Human Organ Trafficking, Loss of Limbs, Near Death Experiences, Organized Crime, Robotic Enhancements, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:20:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23082361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyoloren/pseuds/kyoloren
Summary: Coruscant is a city of billions. It has skyscrapers with over a thousand floors; holoboards on every building and street corner prompting you to buy the latest products; the people who lived there were rich as a king or poor as a rat and everything in between.A young woman, going by the pseudonym of Kira, is a courier of human organs; only the most wealthy of people can afford true organic organs over synthetic. A constant thorn in her side is Snoke's Sith Knights, a group of speeder riders who target her routes to steal the organs for their own clients.One in particular, Kylo, always seems to find her.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 75
Kudos: 58





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the aesthetic of Blade Runner 2049, and the movies Total Recall and Repo Men. Super angsty, I’m so sorry. There’s no joy here.
> 
> Originally this was going to be a one shot but I'm posting it in chapters now. I'm not sure how long it will be.
> 
> The rating is just to be safe, as some themes in this are pretty dark.
> 
> The theme song, and title, is from the song HUMANOID 2.0 by Eprom & ZEKE BEATS which is really all you need to listen to to get into the vibe of this fic.

\--

Coruscant is a city of billions. It has skyscrapers with over a thousand floors; holoboards on every building and street corner prompting you to buy the latest products; the people who lived there were rich as a king or poor as a rat and everything in between.

The city never slept. It never fully woke either, always dazed and glazed with synthetic drugs, VR systems, and personal ‘bots and ‘droids to do whatever you needed. Subways ran under the feet of millions and shuttles and personal hovers ran through the sky on electro-magentic lines designed to resist accidents.

With the moon high in the sky, one lone woman of twenty-four eased her speeder out of a dark archway and patted the securely strapped parcel on the back. She pulled her helmet on, white and orange and grey. It encased her whole face, leaving the longest wave of her brown hair pooling at her shoulder blades, and gave a beep as her ‘bot came online.

“Good evening, Rey,” BeeBee-8 said in their genderless voice. The visor before her eyes lit up and it took a moment for her to focus. Traffic grids covered most of it, with a time-table on the left counting down four hours and radar on the right. It was a lot to take in unless you were used to it.

“Hey, BeeBee,” Rey replied, swinging her leg over the bike. She was dressed in her usual gear: tan trousers, knee-high boots with extra tread and a little surprise, shirt tucked in at her waist and a jacket tight at the wrists over it all, zipped up to her chin, all over a skin-tight bodysuit underneath that could withstand cold and heat and could also help her resist injury if such a thing occurred. On her hands were tight gloves with her fingers exposed. “Plot a course for me. Mind the time-table, but keep it unique.”

BeeBee-8 affirmed and two seconds later a path in green showed before Rey’s eyes. “How about this?”

“It’ll do. I may need to get creative,” she said, leaning over and gripping the handlebars. “You know how it gets.”

“I have emergency services on speed dial,” the ‘bot said with light amusement.

Rey barked out a laugh, checked there was no traffic and took off, hunching over her speeder to minimize turbulence. She caught an EM and shot into the sky about halfway through the lane system, following the green line before her eyes.

“Keep an eye out for me,” Rey said to her ‘bot, even though it was pointless. The Sith, a group of hackers, mercs and thieves, were able to flourish because they could appear invisible to ‘bots and the cameras that recorded the entirety of Coruscant. Rey wore her helmet to keep her face off the cams, to protect her identity and the identity of her clients; she had it legally because of her courier job. The Sith stole everything and made it into their own, for their own selfish needs.

Rey was used to having to run from the Sith--one of their riders, calling themselves Knights, in particular--but that didn’t mean it was easy. She had timetables and people relying on her and it wasn’t easy fighting mid-air when she had a standard bike and the Sith had suped up speeders. Sure, hers was built for streamline speed, but it didn’t have any tricks.

“Quiet so far,” BeeBee-8 reassured her as she ground her teeth together.

Rey took in and let out a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself. She eased her grip on the handlebars and focused on the trip. Shuttles and speeders moved all around her: beside, below, above. Shuttles were less expensive, but sometimes more dangerous depending who you were sharing one with.

Rey passed under a holoboard marketing new color-changing filament hair and a huge camera that shone onto the big intersection. Her bike was registered to her fake name, Kira, a randomly generated identity used to give her anonymity and access. The camera registered this and let her pass without a warning because of her helmet which made it impossible to take a photograph of her face.

Fifteen minutes passed without any incident. BeeBee-8 had access to one personalized camera on Rey’s helmet, which was the only ‘bot and cam that the Sith had neglected to override. It gave Rey and her ‘bot just enough time to register that they were about to be ambushed.

“Incoming,” BeeBee-8 said, which was unnecessary because the warning had already flashed on her screen.

“Shit,” Rey hissed, jerking her speeder off the green and nearly colliding with another hover. The rider yelled at her but she couldn’t hear them and shot forward.

“They’re definitely following you.”

“Thank you, BeeBee.” Gritting her teeth, Rey cut the engine just long enough to drop. Her brain was used to it by now, but her stomach still lurched every time she started free falling through air. “How many?” she asked as she started the engine again, catching a new EM two stories down and shooting forward. The green line of her preferred route was far away. She cursed.

“Just one it looks like,” the ‘bot replied. “But it’s hard to tell, you know.”

BeeBee-8 was always complaining about the lack of surveillance they could pull on the Sith, especially their Knights. But it wasn’t like Rey could do anything to help the ‘bot. It was just how things were unless she wanted to become as bad as the Sith, lying and stealing.

“Just one,” Rey repeated. She gripped the handles with one hand--which was totally dangerous and she knew it--and reached toward her back where she’d slung a shock stick. If necessary, she could use it, but it could easily make her lose balance or if the Knight following had responsive body armor, it could jolt right back at her.

“Definitely just one,” BeeBee said in warning. “You know the one.”

Rey groaned. “Just once I’d like to have a quiet run,” she muttered, setting the magnetic handle of the shockstick against the body of the speeder and she crouched low over the handlebars to shoot forward with as much speed as she could muster.

“That’s not going to work.”

“Stop stating the obvious,” Rey growled as the proximity warning beeped in her ears. She knew exactly who was coming up on her left side and she let up on the speed just a bit, knowing she had to bide her time and save the speeder’s energy.

The Sith’s bike that pulled up beside hers was a gleaming black, and the person driving it was also in all black, no skin showing. The helmet was the same general shape of her own, but completely blacked out. She’d know those broad shoulders under the black jacket anywhere. He went by Kylo, but she highly doubted that was his real name. Identity was easy to fake in Coruscant. 

“Just hand it over,” he said, nodding toward the package on the back of her bike. His voice came clearly through the speakers in her helmet, low and smooth, demanding.

Rey narrowed her eyes toward the green line getting farther away, then slid over to the countdown. “You know I can’t do that,” she said, her mind whirling as she started making a plan. BeeBee kept quiet, knowing Kylo would be able to hear if the ‘bot spoke, such was the Sith tech in his possession.

“Pull off at least.”

“No! You’ll just steal my shit and go. No fucking way.” 

She heard him sigh and the sound sent a shiver down her spine. 

“I’m just doing my job.”

“You _chose_ to join Snoke’s Sith, Kylo,” she spat out his name, gearing up to gun it and hopefully get lost in a busy intersection up ahead. It wasn’t a very high hope but it was all she had. “Do you know how many lives you ruin every time you sabotage one of my runs?”

“I don’t dwell on it,” came his reply just before she called out to BeeBee and soared forward.

Rey wove between slower moving shuttles, heart pounding, hoping she was out of range to be heard through their helmets. 

“There’s only about a forty-three percent chance of this working,” BeeBee reminded her as the intersection came into view. Most shuttles were auto-controlled, as were speeders, but some, like Rey’s, were manual. She _could_ autocontrol hers, but its default was manual. She liked to _feel_ it when she drove; it was better than any machine. No offense to BeeBee.

“That’s better than nothing,” Rey said as she hit the choked intersection. The EM was high here so she could easily maneuver the bike over large shuttles or under them, zoom around speeders, and hopefully lose Kylo along the way. She was almost back at the green course as she got to the far side of the intersection.

“Find anything out about our little pet project, Bee?” Rey asked once they were zooming back toward the target location.

“No,” the ‘bot replied. “The Sith’s security is too aggressive.”

Rey sighed. She’d hoped to get some intel on Kylo that she could use against him, but it didn’t look like that’s where life was taking her. Oh well. She’d just have to get better at avoiding him.

She knew nothing about him except that he always seemed to be the one to find her, to chase her, to take what wasn’t his. In her mind he was a monster; in the world he may as well have been a ghost.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think these will continue to be alternating chapter perspectives!!
> 
> Still don't know how long this will be (7 or 10 chapters maybe?) but I hope I can hold your interest with my updates!

He could have caught up with her. Kira was pretty good on a speeder, but the Sith were the  _ best _ ; the best tech, the best override codes, the law enforcement in their pocket. It would have been easy, but what she’d said rattled him and he let her go.

_ You  _ chose _ to join Snoke’s Sith _ .

Had he? He supposed that yes, he  _ chose _ to be there now, but had it been his choice initially? He remembered threats, no way out, and then he was sucked into it without a choice. His thoughts swirled around his conflict as he walked into the base, helmet in hand, black hair slicked back, dark eyes revealing a little bit too much, but he slammed the wall down behind his eyes when he heard Trudgen.

“Where is it?”

“Lost it,” Kylo replied, eyes hard. He put his helmet forcefully down on the nearby counter.

Trudgen shared a glance with Ap’lek, who was moving a small knife between his fingers like it was a magic trick. “Fuck man, we’ve got a client waiting.”

“Good thing I’m here,” a new voice came from behind. Ren. Snoke’s original protege. He was getting old now, but had enough biomech in him to keep him alive. Kylo kept his face neutral as Ren walked forward with a package. It was taken from him by a tall, willowy woman with white skin and hair and black markings on her face.

Ren met Kylo’s gaze and smirked. “Better luck next time, kid,” he said, chuckling, though his tone and eyes were far from friendly.

Kylo’s hands itched to grab the lightblade in the holster on his back, but he knew the other Knights would jump to Ren’s aid. Kylo got the parcels almost every time he went out. But failure wasn’t an option in the Sith. And lately Ren had been pushing his buttons like a motherfucking machine.

Kylo ground his teeth together as Ren moved over to the nearby dispenser for a drink.

Showing up almost unexpectedly enough to make him jump, Snoke’s large holo appeared near the remaining Knights in the building.

No one had ever seen Snoke’s face before, it was always behind masks and helmets, which only led Kylo believe there was something  _ wrong _ that even all the biomech and advanced cosmetic films couldn’t help. It quite possibly made him even more intimidating, especially when he was a disembodied head floating in the air.

“I sent out for two organs tonight,” their leader’s voice rocked through the open air of the space. “And somehow only received one.”

Ren’s cold blue eyes slid to Kylo over the rim of the drink in his hand. Kylo’s gloved hands creaked as he pulled his hands into fists.

“I’ll have a word,” Snoke said, turning his empty, masked eyes toward Kylo before the holo disappeared.

Ap’lek coughed to cover a snicker, dragging his hand through thick curly hair, his dark skin even darker in the dim light. Ren set his boot on the rung of a stool and put his drink down opposite Kylo’s helmet. He said nothing, but he didn’t need to. 

With speed that came from not only training but his own biomech, Kylo grabbed his helmet in his left hand, hooked his boot around one table leg and flipped the table easily, punching out with his right hand, denting the thick metal tabletop and sending Ren stumbling back. The older Knight blocked his face from the hard edge of the table, and used his raised forearms to block the hard helmet heading toward his face. He shifted and the helmet hit his shoulder with a dull  _ thud _ and Ren grabbed Kylo’s right fist before it could make contact with his face.

They stared at each other, Kylo shaking from the effort, Ren’s ungloved biomech hand showing its age with its archaic design: knobbly knuckles and thin, twig-like fingers connected to a metallic grouping of delicate metal bones and wire tendons. It didn’t have the shape and feel of a real human hand. But it was strong.

Ren shoved Kylo back after an elongated pause. Kylo allowed himself to be pushed away, using the motion to grab the lightblade from over his shoulder, ignite it and point it at Ren’s chin. The dark metal of the blade was coated with flickering, crackling energy, pure enough to slice a speeder in half; a human body, biomech enhanced or not, wouldn’t stand a chance.

The other Knights shifted into fighting stances around them, but Kylo didn’t press forward.

“So impractical,” Ren huffed, face flickering under the light. “Fun, but impractical, kid.”

Blinking, Kylo pushed down the tension in his shoulders and flicked the switch on the hilt, darkening the blade. 

“Best not keep the big boss waiting. You remember what he did last time.” Ren smirked then and before Kylo could bash his face in with his helmet, turned away from the younger man.

Chest heaving from effort--to control himself, to not fuck this shit up, to stay in line--Kylo stalked out of the area, through the naked and bare concrete and steel to the lift. He stepped inside and it started to move automatically. As it brought him higher and higher through the building, he kept his thoughts level, trying to ready himself for whatever punishment he’d receive for not grabbing the kidney that girl, Kira, was transporting. By now it was already at the hospital, already being sewn into someone with more money than Kylo would ever seen in his entire life.

In their world, synthetic organs and biomech limbs were cheap and easy. Real human flesh organ replacements were rarer than a blue moon and one had to be richer than a king to afford one.

The lift stopped, leaving Kylo feeling momentarily weightless before he crashed down into himself. Snoke’s floor in the building was probably not what one would expect. A line of red-bodied guard ‘droids with male and female bodies and blank white oval faces stood in a ring around the main room. A whole wall of screens was to the left and Kylo knew there were entire floors filled with screens and ‘bots set about controlling and watching them beyond this. There were a few other humans in the room: tall and thin and red haired Hux sitting in a high-backed chair in front of a comp, the screen hovering around him, his fingers working on holokeyboards and touchscreens; another tall and thin person, this one female and named Bazine, with white hair scraped back from her face, eyes painted black, wearing a catsuit and tinkering with what looked like a pile of ‘droid scraps, high tech but still scrap; and lastly Snoke himself.

Snoke was a big man, tall and lanky. He didn’t give Kylo a glance when he walked into the room. He was lounged out on a seat that was almost a throne in the low light of the room. The mask hid his face but Kylo could see the flash of a holoscreen playing in the eyeholes of it. He stood there, helmet in hand because he’d forgotten to leave it downstairs, waiting to be seen.

No one acknowledged Kylo, not the ‘droids or the humans. He could feel sweat drip down his neck and soak into the shirt under his jacket.

Whatever Snoke had been watching finished and he waved a hand, straightening. Even though he couldn’t see Snoke’s eyes, Kylo could feel them on him. He instantly tensed.

“Ah,” Snoke said, giving up on sitting up properly and falling back into his chair. The air in here was thick with the residue of synthspice, so common now that Kylo barely registered it. “The one who disappointed me. I should have known.”

Kylo had been through this more times than he could recall, but it still bit deep. He just learned to hide it well.

“You would think, after I saved you and gave you this new life, you would treat me and this organization with more...respect.” Snoke sat up now, hands gripping the arms of his seat, pushing himself forward. Kylo didn’t try searching for a human emotion behind that mask. He knew he wouldn’t find it. He wasn’t entirely sure Snoke was human; it was easy enough to forge in this world.

In a blink, Snoke’s meaty hand backhanded Kylo right in the jaw, sending him back a step or two, ears ringing, left eye watering from the blow.

Kylo’s right eye tried its best to compensate, flickering a screen of weak points on Snoke. As if Kylo had any chance of fighting his boss. Not with the ‘droids around, silent but deadly, and he knew Bazine had some sort of weapon hidden on her person somehow undetectable even with her skin-tight suit.

Saying he was sorry would only make things worse. Kylo grit his teeth and stayed silent. He’d been through this enough to know how it would play out.

Snoke settled back into his seat like a proud lion. His voice came out smooth from the abyss of the mask. “Why is it that you are the least capable of my Knights when I know you could be the best?”

That warranted a response. “I don’t know, sir,” he replied, voice as stiff as his spine.

“Is it perhaps that you’re too emotionally invested? I know you and the other Knights don’t get along. Like cats and water. Isn’t that the saying?” Snoke swept his head toward Bazine, who nodded and purred out a, “Yes, that’s it”.

With his attention back on Kylo, Snoke leaned forward, steepling his hands. “I’ll tell you what. I can make it easy for you. Have a little test...a...tournament perhaps? You could show me your loyalty.”

“You want me to kill another Knight?” Kylo was sure to keep his voice even, as emotionless as he could. It felt like a trap.

“No, no, no,” Snoke snapped. “Some of my rivals. Take them out, and you have my trust once again, young Kylo.”

Killing a nameless, faceless enemy wouldn’t be hard for him. The Sith were all killers, directly and indirectly, the Knights most of all. Killing came easy enough for him. But it wasn’t like he had a choice. Snoke made up his mind and it was going to happen one way or another.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *drops breadcrumbs through these chapters like Hansel & Gretel*
> 
> Thanks for all your comments so far!
> 
> I update every Monday and Thursday! :D

Rey was situated on the edge of a roof, helmet at her side, hover speeder parked below. The bright lights of the upper quarter of the city were far away. She wasn’t quite with the rats, but she may as well have been.

Holding a small comm device in her hand, barely bigger than her palm, she opened a message, encrypted from one of her boss’s other workers, and read it quickly:  _ Buyer no longer in need of HT. Deceased. Suspect: Sith Knights. _

Rey hissed through her teeth. Heart transplants paid the most, and having a very dead client meant that the heart was no longer needed. Thousands of credits fell away from her and only then did she wonder what happened. But she didn’t know her client’s name so she couldn’t even search for it. That was protocol. Everything was as secretive as possible.

“Such a shame,” BeeBee-8 said, voice echoing through Rey’s ears from the transmitter pasted against her skin behind her ear. “I could have used a core processing upgrade.”

“We’ve still got enough cred. And there will be more jobs soon. As long as our clients don’t start dropping dead all over the city.”

“That would be ideal.”

Rey had to agree. With nothing else to do, Rey put her comm back in her pocket and zipped it in. She couldn’t handle idle time. Idle time meant she had time to think, to let her mind wander. And there were things she didn’t want to remember.

Standing, she put her helmet on her head and started the walk across the old concrete roof to the rickety fire escape.

She was halfway across when a speeder fell out of the sky. It would have crushed her if she hadn’t jumped back.

“Sith,” BeeBee said helpfully as the dust impeded her vision.

_ How did he find me? _ Rey thought, concerned. Had he seen her with her helmet off? That could ruin everything if he figured out her true identity. But she couldn’t worry about that now.

She was weaponless and her speeder was down and out of reach. There was no EM to reach the roof from the ground so there was no way to get it up here even with BeeBee-8’s help.

It was Kylo of course. She watched, muscles tensed, as he got off the hover and stood in front of her. His shoulders were even broader than she recognized when hunched over a speeder, and she wondered what kind of damage he could do to her if she couldn’t get away.

“Here to kill me?” she asked, the visor before her eyes mostly clear except for her heightened heart rate monitor skyrocketing in the top corner.

Kylo didn’t move any nearer, staying by his speeder. “Not today.”

Rey straightened her shoulders, trying to make herself bigger than she actually was. Her mind whirled and BeeBee placed an image over her eyes: the client found dead, not by accident. Without any tact, the photo was of a man in a white suit lying dead in the middle of his home, blood splattered everywhere, chest ripped open. 

Rey knew that the organs  _ she _ ran weren’t always given willingly, but it was how the world worked. She was just a courier, she didn’t do product retrieval. Her stomach rolled. “Kill anyone else lately?” She swiped a hand forward and BeeBee sent the image to his helmet.

He tilted his head to the side. “He was dying anyway.” He shrugged and flexed his gloved hands. He was sadly correct considering the man had been in need of a new heart, but it still didn’t excuse the brutality of that photograph.

“How did you find me?”

“It wasn’t that hard.”

“Did your boss send you?”

“No. But he will next time.”

“Is this...are you warning me?” Rey frowned, sweat dripping between her shoulder blades. Confusion rippled through her. 

He took a deep breath, and she tensed even more, waiting for an attack. She would be an easy target right now. She may be able to get down to the street with her enhanced boots but she wasn’t counting on it.

“It can be a warning, or a threat,” Kylo’s voice cut through her thoughts. “Take it how you want.”

He slid back. There was no discernible reason why he was here, why he was talking to her, and her confusion grew as he got back on his speeder.

“Wait,” she said, moving forward not of her own accord. “Wait. Is Snoke planning something?”

The engine of hovers were usually silent but his roared to life like a mythical creature. He gripped the handlebars but didn’t move right away.

“Is he?” Rey demanded. 

Kylo hesitated before he snapped out a bark, a growl of annoyance that her helmet picked up. It rang through her ears as he took off, nearly hitting her as he found a weak EM and climbed into the sky, shooting out of sight when he hit a stronger lane.

“That was odd,” BeeBee commented.

Confusion and anxiety wrapped up in her stomach like a rock. Why had he come to  _ her _ ? Why did he warn her? Was he warning her or was this some ploy? She knew that she had a great track record for delivery; the best in Han’s company, but others were just as capable: Poe, Rose, Paige.

Why her?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mind the tags! This one gets into the violence, blood and gore stuff.

Just one, Snoke had said. But one wasn’t enough. He was about to be three bodies into this  _ test _ . This one wasn’t a receiver of organs, but rather one of the middle men between Han Solo’s courier business and the wealthy who received the cargo. Cut them out and it would cripple an arm in the business.

Kylo hadn’t been this high into the city in a long time. Everything got whiter, sleeker, more artistic and less about durability. The rich could afford the expense of buildings that were visually stimulating and not squared off. Here there were buildings that twisted like papers in a stack, that were bulbous and liquid, that were every shape and design imaginable.

There was also heightened security. Kylo’s visor showed green markers zeroed in on the countless sentinel ‘droids stationed around the building he was meant to get into. The power of Snoke’s reach was far, making him invisible to cams, but ‘droids were on independent systems, especially when protecting the rich, which meant they couldn't be hacked easily.

He had been circling around the building for a while, keeping a good distance, working out a strategy. The target’s flat was near the top of a building built like a wave, with a private landing pad guarded by a security shield and two ‘droids.

“Not a good option,” EyeGee-88 told him. The ‘bot was rarely loquacious, a flat-personality meant to just assist with visuals.

Kylo had been staring at this building long enough to drag the ‘bot’s speech module out to play. He sighed, sitting back on his bike hovering in the air in a low traffic zone. “What’s going on in the building? Is it mostly residential?”

The scans of the building showed up as a white lined blueprint before his eyes. Mostly residential, but it had some larger spaces below. Including… “Is that a party?” His eyes shifted toward one of the lower levels.

EyeGee-88 responded by switching to thermal vision, showing that actual people and not just visual holo-avatars were in attendance. And there were minimal ‘droids--they showed up as black smears with no heat of their own--which meant there was probably a human staff for whatever it was.

“There we go,” Kylo said, a plan already forming in his mind. He settled over the handlebars and headed down toward the brightly lit ground level. 

Most people did everything by VR and holo these days, but large gatherings weren’t unheard of. Once they were close enough, EyeGee was able to slice into the building’s security system with little resistance. Kylo read the projections on the screen: his target was not in attendance, and his home was currently unoccupied by anyone but the man.

_ Good _ , Kylo thought, bringing his bike around the building and jumping off. His boots hit solid ground, glistening with the dust from millions of precious gems. 

“This isn’t standard protocol,” EyeGee said, sounding flat and bored, rather than concerned like Kylo knew some ‘bots could be. The ‘bot had said the same thing a few days ago when he’d been heading back to HQ and spotted Kira on the roof.

He pulled off his helmet, leaving him with two simple transmitters pasted below each ear, hidden by his hair. “You’ll have to use audio from now on, or stream to me,” Kylo said, leaving his helmet on the bike. The two transmitters flickered to life and a distortion holo covered Kylo’s face. It would keep him from being spotted at any cams EyeGee may miss blocking as he moved through the building.

It helped that human staffers were often given the same thing, or actual masks to make them appear to be faceless ‘droids.

How did he know that? He frowned, remembered, blinked and shook his head. No, he couldn’t get distracted. Not now. 

Walking inside, no one stopped him, ‘droid or human. EyeGee was in the system, giving him a clear path. He headed toward the party in the middle of the building. There were more people here than he’d seen in one place in a long time--not counting the races where thousands, millions sometimes gathered in the stands.

Most were dressed in their fanciest outfits dripping with gems and glimmering fabrics and he didn’t fit in, not with his style of clothes; the black gloves, the holster across his chest, the weapon at his back. No one pointed it out, thinking him to be part of the event staff. EyeGee monitored the target, known only by Hondo, and gave Kylo directions.

These buildings were not made for accessibility. He’d have to weave through the ballroom to get to the appropriate lift that could bring him to Hondo’s floor. Five lifts were casually strewn across the blueprint of the building.

EyeGee had a lot to say about the layout of the building. Well, for the ‘bot it was a lot. “What purpose does this serve?”

“It looks nice,” Kylo muttered under his breath, stepping into the event area. From outside, you’d never known that synthesized music was playing loudly through the room. Floating in the air above were holos of a symphony orchestra, moving through the air like fish in the sea. Kylo stuck to the edges of the room. 

Party staff were dressed in black with clear masks on, similar enough to his appearance that he didn’t stand out. As he made his way through long dresses and tall men with perfectly coiffed hair, he couldn’t help but let his mind wander. How many of these people were in Snoke’s pocket? How many had synth organs in them? Biomech? They were rich so they could probably afford flesh models that fit seamlessly with their original form.

How many of their lives were saved by Kira and the others working for Solo’s smuggling ring? He shook his head again.

Distractions would serve nothing tonight. He focused, pushing everything else away, not even jumping when there was a sound sharp and loud like an old school weapon, that made the crowd gasp and yell and then laugh and clap. Kylo slunk out a back doorway, just as fluidly formed as the rest of the building.

The hallway wasn’t void of life; ‘droids, personal and sentinel, walked, and humans too, in less-expensive clothing, running errands in a city that never slept. He was given no mind and walked toward the lift. To avoid suspicion, he lifted his palm to the screen next to the doors and EyeGee unlocked it from deep within the building’s system.

It was empty. Kylo eyed the small cam lenses in the corner but EyeGee had them looping on an empty lift. The small room moved, feeling unlike any other lift he’d ever been in. It was like a boat, bucking and swaying. He felt almost sick by the time it reached a high enough level.

Once he exited the lift, the hallway was dark. “Is this your doing?” he asked, voice low.

“No,” the ‘bot responded. “All cams, thermal readers and motion sensors are offline.”

“And the ‘droids?”

“Distracted.”

Kylo nodded into the darkness and pressed behind his ear. The face distortion mask disappeared. He walked forward cautiously. There were, according to the blueprints, three different flats on this part of the floor. The building was set up unlike anything else, but Kylo didn’t need to worry about noise. The rich liked their silence.

“Interior cams and ‘bots?” he asked, stopping at the proper door.

Instead of responding, EyeGee unlocked the door to Hondo’s residence. It swung inward an inch or two, just as dark inside as out. Kylo pushed it open and stepped inside, closing it softly behind him. He walked forward through the darkness of the flat, his right eye making up for the lack of light.

It had taken him a long time to get used to having double vision, but by now he could navigate as naturally as anyone with two organic eyes.

The flat was enormous, with curving walls made of nothing but clear glass and plexi. Kylo spied the personal speeder pad through a set of doors and EyeGee got to work. He had no thermal vision, but he took deliberate steps to be quiet, expecting anything. A ‘droid to become “un-distracted”, some other type of security.

He pressed his back and gloved hands to a wall that twisted and flowed and froze when the lights suddenly flooded the flat. Silently cursing EyeGee for not warning him, Kylo backed up from the way he came, heart picking up speed as he heard someone walking down the hall.

“Now, that wasn’t very smart,” a man’s voice called out in a drawl accent that Kylo had never heard before. Not in this part of Coruscant.

Pressing his lips together, Kylo forwent stealth and moved back toward the large expansive living room in the middle of the flat, eyes on the hallway.

Hondo, as it had to be him, walked out from around a bend. It was an older man, smaller than Kylo had expected, with a  _ beard _ of all things, dripping with gold beads and metal circles tied within it, and a bald head. He had a roguish, primitive club in his hands.

“Thought you had me, huh?” The man glanced over his shoulder. “Have a server jumping screen in my room. Ain’t nobody catching me, Hondo, so unawares.”

Kylo clenched his teeth and held out his hands to his sides, weaponless. “My apologies. This could have gone easier.”

“No death is easy, my friend.” Hondo grinned like he was a madman and came at Kylo with a yell, club swinging. It was not an untrained swing, but Kylo was a lot bigger and he stopped the blow with his right arm with a dull thud of metal. The older man frowned a little and Kylo was able to wrench the club out of his hands and shove Hondo back. He tossed the weapon clear across the wide expanse of the flat.

Hondo scrambled back, reaching under the counter of the large, pristine island nearby. “They send a machine? How ungrateful. I must teach Snoke a lesson.” He pulled out a gun and shot.

Kylo barely had time to move. He jumped out of the way of the first shot, the particle beam exploding the back of a chair. There wasn’t enough fucking furniture in this place, so he had to keep moving. Shots followed, hitting furniture and missing and shattering glass walls, artwork, cutting through walls and sputtering sparks.

The air suddenly filled with loud, teeth chattering music. EyeGee either had a great sense of humor or thought it would help. Help how, Kylo didn’t know, ears ringing from the shots and the deep bass.

“There’s only so much charge in those,” he yelled out from where he’d found a space to crouch, barely hidden. He tried to do the calculations in his head of bolts-to-energy but the knowledge slipped away from him. Almost painfully, EyeGee projected numbers right into his vision.

He grimaced and reached up to check that his lightblade was in place on his back.

“Aye,” Hondo yelled. 

Kylo realized the target was now closer to the door, closer to escape.  _ Kriff _ . He’d have to work fast. Taking in a deep breath, he let it out, took another, thinking, processing, anticipating. With one final breath, he stood, revealing his position. A shot came at him, which he somehow, fucking miraculously, deflected with his right palm.

Hondo rushed for the door, shooting behind him. One missed and went through the glass door leading to the landing pad. The second hit the ceiling. The third clipped Kylo in the shoulder.

He yelled, jolted back as it cut through his jacket, his light body suit not covering his arms, leaving the vulnerable flesh to be cut through. Pain, white hot, flooded his system, but it helped, pushing his mind toward his objective.

Hondo struggled with the door that wouldn’t open at his command. He pounded a fist against it, shot the gun again. Nothing. He tossed it and cursed.

Kylo swiped the gun off the ground and came up behind Hondo, who resorted to fighting with his fists. Kylo’s face was a blank slate as he stopped the punches. The smaller man ducked around and tried to escape toward the landing pad.

Kylo threw the gun. It hit Hondo on the back of the head and the man wobbled in place, using the back of a wrecked sofa to steady himself. Kylo was on him in seconds, swiping the lightblade from his back and shoving the fierce, unlit blade through Hondo’s back, gripping the man’s shoulder.

“Ah,” Hondo said, looking at the tip of the blade sticking out of his torso. “That was smart. Taking...taking one of my synths first.” He coughed and blood flecks flew through the air.

Kylo flicked the switch at the handle and the blade lit with electricity, sparkling, cutting. The air filled with the smell of burning flesh. The music cut off, leaving Kylo’s ears ringing.

“I was told,” Kylo said, voice even. He turned off the blade and it slid out of the man, who slumped to the ground, trying to pull himself along. Kylo shoved aside a seat and turned Hondo over with his boot. The older man gasped, hands shaking, chest bleeding red. “To take as many organics as you’ve got left.”

Hondo laughed, blood erupting into the air like a volcano. Kylo crouched beside him, right eye taking in the damage done. He gripped his blade, waiting for any last words.

The man sensed it, slowly turning his watery eyes toward his murderer. “You won’t find many,” he said, grinning, beads and circlets of gold twinkling in his beard.

With hooded eyes, Kylo sliced through the target’s shirt, the layer of skin, muscle and fat over his ribcage. He didn’t know exactly when Hondo died, but it wasn’t until he had gotten his hand on the bones underneath and peeled back the ribs and ropey muscles that the man fell silent.

Kylo poked around the exposed torso, ripping the flesh and spotting a number of synthesized organs: lungs, liver, kidneys, part of his intestines, spleen, even parts of his esophagus had been replaced. The only viable organ left was the heart, as pink and red and fleshy as the rest of the organic insides.

Snoke didn’t want it to transplant.

He wanted a prize.

Face still slack, Kylo reached his right hand in and pulled, using the bloody tip of his lightblade to cut the organ free. Standing, Kylo swiped his gloves, his blade, on nearby cloth furniture to clean it as best as he could on his way out the doors.

The night air hit his sweaty forehead in blissful relief. His bike was there on the landing pad, driven up by EyeGee, who said nothing as Kylo covered his head in the helmet. The heart went into a compartment under the seat, slid into a bag. It wasn’t good enough to keep an organ viable outside the body, but it would be enough for Snoke.

Kylo’s gloves were slick with blood. He wiped them on his pants, everything black so it didn’t show. Blinking sweat out of his eyes, he looked out over the city.

White and shining, perfectly ordered with lines of hovers in the air, the buildings stretching toward the heavens, everything  _ perfect _ . His vision swung to the mess of Hondo’s flat. Windows with dangerous cracks, furniture exploded, blood leaking into a pool around the body. 

That raw, bloody, gruesome scene was Kylo’s world. He didn’t have the luxury of order, to be carefree.

The blood on his hands meant he would live another day.

Gritting his teeth, Kylo settled over the handlebars, back stiff, shoulder screaming, and drove his speeder off the landing back, turning his back on the wealthy upper quarter of Coruscant and heading into the darker, grimmer belly of midtown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why do I always have Kylo kill side character favs in every fic I write about him? WHY?!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sort of messing up the every other POV with this chapter and the next, but you'll see why!
> 
> Thanks for commenting and enjoying this story! It's pretty heavy and emotional to write, but seeing your comments make my day!

There was a lot of death lingering around lately. Multiple clients and vital third parties had been killed. Rey reacted to each new death with a rolling stomach, knowing deep down who was responsible. Snoke, yes, but directly? Kylo.

 _This_ must have been what he was warning about. Or threatening. She didn’t quite know which it was. Her nails were bitten down to the quick and her cheeks were sore from nervously biting inside them. It wasn’t like she could _do_ anything about it. She wasn’t a killer, at least not with deliberated murder, and she didn’t think she would stand a chance against a Knight anyway.

No one noticed that she was distracted. Not Rose, who was usually so in tune with the emotions of others. Not Paige or Poe, who Rey weren’t close with but who had sharp eyes and always caught things others missed. Neither did Finn, who was a backup courier and full time assistant, spending most of his time at Han Solo’s side, reaching out through the arms of the underground smuggling enterprise that was Solo’s main gig. The legal couriering was just a front, even if it dragged in tons of legit credits.

Almost a week passed before Rey went out again. Solo was worried for the safety of the couriers but the world didn’t stop just because of a few deaths. With nerves running high, Rey went through the normal process of getting Kira’s speeder ready--Rey had her own hover that she used for personal errands so that they couldn’t be traced back to the same person--and traveling to the location to pick up the organ.

It was a heart this time and it was special. Rey’s hands shook when she took the package and strapped it to the bike. 

Normally she could emotionally distance herself from each organ, each client, because of the lack of information shared with her. But this time, this time was different.

Once her helmet was in place, Rey shot off into the sky. It was a long way to the hospital and BeeBee-8 had been unnaturally quiet, sensing Rey’s need for concentration. Four hours was a stretch, but it was the time placed on her visor as Rey found a strong EM and followed BeeBee’s green pathway.

Couriers couldn’t have extra protection. Traveling with a band would just slow them down. Rey knew this, and yet she wished she had a few others around her just in case. No couriers had ended up dead-- _yet_ \--but there was a first time for everything.

“Everything is quiet,” BeeBee said into Rey’s ears as she settled into a speed lane. Coruscant was massive. Rey couldn’t even fathom the size of it, nor did she know anything different. The city stretched as far as anyone could see in any direction and that was that. For all she knew, it could be the entire planet. But it made traveling within it time consuming.

And for Rey, that could become a problem.

“Almost too quiet,” Rey murmured, her body tense. 

By the time the clock on her visor had counted down one hour, her knuckles hurt from clutching her handlebars so much, and her thighs were shaking with the effort of keeping herself on her hover. It could be fine, she kept telling herself. It wasn’t like she was attacked _every_ time she took a courier trip through Coruscant.

Those thoughts would be her downfall.

Kylo came out of nowhere, without saying a word. _So unlike him_ , Rey thought, as if she knew him personally.

She cursed and tried to speed ahead but to no avail; she was already pushing her speeder to the limit. And she was in thick traffic. She couldn’t cut the engine and fall to a lower EM.

“Give it to me,” Kylo said, voice cold and hard.

Rey’s adrenaline spiked. “No,” she ground out between her teeth. There was more weighing on the heart she was transporting than just another payload. Family, trust, potentially her entire future. “I can’t.”

She could hear the deep breath he let out, and her thoughts flickered. This could be it, the _end_ . She could lose more than her job. She may not have feared for her life by the time Kylo left the rooftop days ago, but that was all different now. Something had _shifted_ , she could feel it like a physical force in the air around her.

“Shit!” BeeBee’s exclamation made her heart lurch, as did her speeder suddenly braking. Rey’s stomach dropped to her toes when she saw a long, sharp blade on Kylo’s hand, the light from the buildings, the hovers glistening off of it.

If BeeBee hadn’t overridden her manual controls, she could have been killed!

Rey swallowed, throat dry, and grabbed her own weapon, though it felt insignificant against a blade like that. It looked like it could cut through anything: metal, bone, a whole person.

“Bee,” Rey said slowly, her hand tightening on the shockstick, eyes on Kylo. She did not like feeling like prey, but right now she felt very small and very unprepared for this.

“I’ve got you,” the ‘bot said, taking over the speeder. With precision that a human couldn’t match, Bee dropped Rey into a lower EM and started weaving among the normal traffic. Kylo wasn’t far behind.

It was only a matter of time.

If she could call for help, she would. But then the Sith would hear and find out who her connections were and she couldn’t put anyone else at risk.

Her jaw hurt from clenching.

Once or twice he got close enough and she tried to shock him, but it only resulted in his blade cutting through the shockstick, rendering it unusable. Rey dropped it, hand numb as the electricity backfired.

The remainder of the stick fell and exploded into tiny sparks below them.

Tears of frustration and failure and fear prickled at Rey’s eyes as BeeBee sent her forward out of harm's way. But not for long.

Kylo disappeared from BeeBee’s sensors and special, secret cam.

“Bee,” Rey said softly, shaking out her hand, still tingling. “If I--”

She had no chance to finish. Kylo burst out of the traffic and Rey felt his boot come into contact with her ribcage. The momentum threw her off the bike--hundreds of feet in the air. 

_Kriff, kriff, kriff_!

Rey’s arms flailed to catch any part of the speeder, but her hands slipped over the smooth metal. Stomach and heart in throat, she thought she saw Kylo reaching for her as she dropped.

“No, no, no, come on,” she whispered, tears blurring her vision as she tried to push the button on her right wrist. She managed it and gasped as her boots activated with mild thrusters.

She wasn’t skilled at mag-boots; she probably should have practiced, but there had never been time and she kept putting it off.

Now she wished she hadn’t.

They slowed her fall, yes, but she was still falling through air at a startling rate. 

_I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die_

Her body hit the flat roof of a residential building with a bone breaking, deep _THWUMP_.

* * *

Kylo saw her fall. He’d meant for her to fall. So why was his first instinct to reach out and try to grab her hand?

He felt suffocated by the weight of his actions.

Hovering in the sky, he heard her exclamations and choked sob through their helmets. And then she dropped, landing heavily on a nearby building. Cement dust sprang up around her.

He hesitated. The heart was right there. He should grab it and go. EyeGee was silent.

“Fuck,” he muttered to himself before he took his bike down to the roof. He told himself that he was just going down to check, to make sure she was dead. Her bike stayed hovered on the EM. No one had stopped to help.

No one ever would, not in this world, in this time. Everyone was too plugged into their VR and holos and no one gave a shit about anyone but themselves.

His feet hit the roof and he hesitated before pulling off his helmet. If she had fallen even farther to the ground below, he wouldn’t have stopped. An extra sixty stories and she would certainly be dead, bones all broken, organs crushed.

He didn’t know if it was lucky or unlucky that she fell to a flat roof surrounded by taller buildings. The air was thick with heat as he slowly walked toward her. She wasn’t moving and he spotted spiderwebs of cracks in the concrete from her fall. 

No one had come to investigate; either no one was home or they were too caught up to hear a person falling on their roof.

Time seemed to move sluggishly as Kylo knelt by her body. She wasn’t moving, and she was done up in too many thick clothes for him to see if she was breathing.

He did not scan her body for injuries, the thought of being intrusive was too much for him. Instead, he took her, gently, barely moving her but enough to rest her against his legs. 

His hands, black and gloved, were steady as he reached forward. Her helmet was snug, but he pulled it off and caught the back of her head before it could fall.

She was pretty, very pretty. A small pointed nose, rose colored lips, freckles across her pale skin. The face tugged at a strand of memory in his mind, one he was certain was attached to nothing, as most of his memories were shattered and scattered.

For some reason, he found himself holding his breath, a deep sorrow spreading through his chest so strong that he felt his body shake.

He didn’t understand _why_.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all ready to get your heart ripped out?
> 
> Good.
> 
> Angst ensues.

Rey was an orphan. She spent her life on the streets, scrounging and scavenging. She’d take out trash, deliver food, clean apartments, whatever would give her enough credits to buy a meal. She eventually stole from the wrong person but instead of being tossed into a detention center, she was taken under the proverbial wing of well known hover dealer and swindler, Unkar Plutt. He was a horrible person, but at least he gave her a roof over her head even if she had to work her ass off for meals. As she got older, she got wiser, faster, smarter. She started training herself on how to fix a speeder like the pros rode in the POD-Races. She got angrier too, at her treatment, and mouthed off more than once. It landed her attacked by others working for Plutt trying to steal her food or scrap, wherein she learned to defend herself.

By the time she landed in police custody at nearly nineteen, she didn’t look like much but she was a better scavenger and survivor than anyone else in the upper quadrants of Coruscant. She was already thinking she could spring a deal with the cops when she was bailed out and found herself indebted to one Han Solo.

He’d heard of her, and Unkar Plutt was a thorn in his side, so he decided to see what she had to offer. Rey had been ecstatic. She’d heard about the famous smuggler most of her life, and never thought she’d ever  _ meet _ him, much less work for him. It was a great nineteenth birthday present.

She worked small gigs for a while, running shuttles, keeping her eyes peeled. Han Solo had a small, but productive close crew and a network that ran deep through the city. It was still a few weeks before she’d met Solo, the younger.

To be fair, she hadn’t even realized Han Solo had a wife, much less a son. Rey was working far later than anyone else, slid under a hover speeder trying to get it to run smoother on lower level EMs. She had trouble sleeping and she usually only could once she exhausted herself entirely.

Face and hands and arms smudged with dirt, she bonked her head on the bottom of the engine core when the white overhead lights flickered on without warning.

Muttering a curse, she slipped out from under the machine, rubbing her forehead, eyes searching.

“Kriff, shit, sorry,”  _ he _ had said, looking all the part of a truly apologetic person. He was tall, broad, with pale skin and dark hair. Nothing at all like his father. 

Rey immediately went into defensive mode, not recognizing him. “Who’re you?” she snapped, hand tightening around a hefty metal wrench.

“Me?” He paused a few steps into the shop, blocking most of the exit with his shoulders. “Ben Solo. Who’re you?”

At the name, her eyebrows raised nearly to her hairline. “I didn’t know Han Solo had a son.”

Ben had smiled at her then, dripping with charm. “I take it you’re new. How long’ve you been here?”

Rey shifted, hooking her elbows on her upturned knees, wrench held firmly between. “A few weeks.”

“I’ve been away,” Ben explained as if that wasn’t obvious already. “Dad sends me away for conference, feelers, new buys, et cetera, et cetera.” 

“Hmmph,” Rey said, eyeing him. If he was anything like his father, she would have to watch him carefully. If not just to learn the business, but she wasn’t blind. He was definitely attractive. Unconventionally compared to how most people made themselves look these days: cosmetic surgery was commonplace and looking completely symmetrical and  _ perfect _ was the go-to. It made it more compelling to look at people who were just themselves.

“Sorry again,” Ben said, running a hand through his hair. He headed toward the stairway in the back that led to the living quarters of the crew closest to Han, the ones who stayed by him all the time. Like Rey had quickly become; even if she had the smallest room, it was the first time she’d had a space of her own. “I’ll see you around.” He hesitated, probably realizing she hadn’t offered him her name. He didn’t ask, and kept going upstairs.

Rey went back to her bike.

Over the next few weeks, Ben was around a lot. He was bigger than life, his charm not just subject to use on women but anyone around him, and he was most of all helpful. She gave him her name willingly, and protested the multiple times he offered to work her smaller jobs with her. Piloting a shuttle wasn’t glamorous.

One day, he stood with her at the front piloting controls, leaning against the corner of the wall as everyone else stood holding handholds from the ceiling or sat in hovering curved seats.

“Where’re you from, Rey?” he asked, voice low so that it wouldn’t carry through the shuttle.

Rey had a half-screen hooked around her right ear and projecting in front of her right eye, showing her the path to follow. It had taken some getting used to the split vision, but she could pilot a shuttle blindfolded now. “Nowhere,” she replied, trying to keep the smile that threatened to bloom across her face. She always found herself smiling around Ben, which was very annoying since she didn’t like to show that kind of trust and weakness. She survived this long because of her strength and because she relied on one but herself. “I’m no one.”

“So you’re nothing,” he said. The words held in the air between them. Rey’s eyebrow twitched and Ben processed the words quickly. “I meant that...you don’t have to worry about living up to anyone.”

“Like you?” She let his words slide because as charming as he was, she noticed that he tended to say the wrong things quite a lot. 

“Yeah. Han Solo. Big deal.” He flashed a grin with crooked teeth. “You can just be yourself.”

“Guess I never thought of it that way,” she said, bringing the shuttle to its first stop of the trip. “You seem to be doing a fair job of making your own way so far.”

“Thanks.” He leaned forward as the shuttle’s occupants shifted, some leaving, some getting on, and they started moving again. “You ever drive anything but this piece of junk?”

“Not yet. I’ve fixed enough speeders to know how they work. I tried driving some when I was younger but I’m still new at your father’s work. I haven’t been given proper training yet.”

“I can take you.”

She furrowed her brows and looked at him. His eyes spoke of earnestness and she did want to believe him. “What do you mean?”

“I’ll take you for a ride. Get dinner, show you the best special routes. You can go loads more places with a speeder than a shuttle.”

Rey rolled the thought around, and the thought of learning more, being able to put more forward, to be more useful, was tempting. She didn’t want to lose her job. It was the best thing to happen to her in her entire life.

“Okay.” She had no idea what she had been agreeing to with that one small word.

Days later, Ben did take her on his speeder. It was faster and windier than anything she’d ever driven on. Plutt’s speeders were mostly ground level and she’d never been allowed to take them far. Ben drove like the bike was a part of him. She had to hold onto his middle, goggles covering her eyes to protect them. They’d gone higher in the skies than she’d ever thought possible and she was sure they’d fall. She clung to him tighter and closed her eyes.

“Hey, it’s fine!” Ben had yelled over his shoulder before guiding his bike toward a building dock. Rey had been wobbly kneed and astounded at the sheer drop from the edge. She’d never been this high in her entire life. She said so, and Ben grinned at her again and peeled the goggles from her face, leaving them with his bike. They stood there on the edge of a fall that would definitely end in their deaths and he acted as if they were securely inside. He ran his hands through her hair, tidying it. Breath caught in her throat and her heart squeezed in a way that it had never before.

Once satisfied, he took her hand and they went inside, went in a lift up, up, up, and ate dinner half a mile in the sky, overlooking the city. It was bright everywhere. You couldn’t see stars in the sky, even this high up. Rey wondered what stars looked like, as she’d never seen them.

“They’re pretty,” Ben told her, because he had been away from the city before. He had experiences she could never dream of, but maybe she could make her own. “Much like those.” He brushed his fingertips across the freckles cascading down her face from her cheeks and nose. 

A blush rushed to her skin and Rey had shoveled food into her mouth so she could figure out what the fuck was going on here. By the time they left, she thought she did.

“Has this been a date?” she asked in the lift back down to where his speeder was parked.

Ben didn’t laugh, but his smile was kind. “If you want it to be.”

She focused on the light, fluttery feeling in her stomach. It wasn’t bad; it was kind of exciting actually. She didn’t think people did this anymore; everything was done through screens, through holos. She’d never heard much about people meeting up and having real dates that weren’t through VR. She liked how grounded it felt.

“I think I do,” she’d said. Another small sentence to change her life.

When they got back to the shop, she’d kissed him, having no idea what she was doing, only that she wanted to do it. He kissed her back and held her close and Rey was almost overcome with the emotions attached to such an act. She slept soundly for the first time that evening.

The rest of her life shifted after that. It was brighter, with a balance she hadn’t had before. She was no longer just surviving, but she was living too. Not only was she becoming friends with the others of Han’s closest crew, but there was  _ Ben _ . He was big and bright and wonderful and made her feel like she was important in a world that told her she wasn’t.

Months slipped by. Rey was given more responsibilities, taking part in the actual smuggling ventures sometimes. Ben was a great teacher for many things, including but not limited to speeder driving; other things included kissing, talking about her feelings and also sex. Sex was great. She’d never thought much about it before, but there was something primally invested in the act. And she had it all with Ben. 

Ben, who whispered he loved her for the first time while they were in a theater watching a movie and she was crying at a sad part. Ben, who hated to leave on his longer trips but always pinged her at night to tell her how much he missed her. Ben, who she found herself safe and comfortable with for the first time in her life.

He felt like  _ home _ , which was not something she had ever had, nor something she thought she’d ever get. But there he was.

And everything had been fine, glorious even. She should have been paying more attention, but then again, there was an old saying about love being blind. She didn’t know the context, but if she had, maybe she could have foreseen it.

It was surreal, reliving this. She thought about the night sky, bright with light, and the deal gone bad and the explosion. Her heart in her throat, her stomach fallen through the floor, everything slipping out of focus. She didn’t remember it, but she yelled out his name, the force of the moment sending her to her knees. No one could have survived something like that. 

So she,  _ now _ , she must be dead. The fall had killed her. It wasn’t exactly how she’d ever pictured herself dying, but perhaps it was for the best. It was fast enough and if she was here, seeing Ben then everything must be fine.

“Ben,” she said, her voice a whisper. She lifted her hand, her arm heavy, toward his face.

His brow furrowed and it triggered something in her. She felt pain bloom out along her back and her arm fell onto her torso. Should she be able to feel pain if she was dead?

“Rey?” The voice is what did it. It wasn’t the voice she remembered, but it was still his voice. Hard edged, broken, but she could tell it was Ben. She couldn’t have come up with that on her own.

This was real.

And thus reality slammed back into her. She could feel the ache in her bones, the ringing in her ears, the stuffiness in her lungs from the air being forced out of them by the impact. She was half-held by him and he was...the other rider. The kriffing Sith Knight who’d been tormenting her for three years? Things weren’t lining up in her head and she furrowed her own brow, the space behind her eyes pounding.

Kylo-- _ Ben _ on the other hand, was having less trouble processing. Because  _ of course _ his father’s best courier was Rey. It made so much sense, he felt stupid for not figuring it out sooner. And how hadn’t he known? He should have been able to tell, right? Her body that he knew so well, her voice even...but it had been years since he’d last seen her, heard her, and the helmet changed one’s voice. And his memory wasn’t what it used to be. She’d been chipped out of his brain with a chisel, leaving hardly anything left. But seeing her, hearing her voice, it all came rushing back.

He felt his heart plummet at the thought of having almost killed her. His hands shook. The one not holding her up rested on her stomach, to steady himself as much as to feel her.

“Ben?” she said his name again and tried sitting up. He had an arm wrapped around her, could feel her body’s weakness and tremors from the fall. “How?” Rey searched his face. There was a long, jagged scar on his right side, cutting across his cheek, digging down under the collar of his jacket. And...his eye. It was biomech; she could tell because the color wasn’t right and she could see all the lines situated into a circle to create the iris and because it was missing the same emotion as his left eye. His left eye screamed broken and his right was foreign to her. “We all saw you die.”

“I…” Kylo had pushed down what little he remembered of his past when he started working with Snoke. He had to. He shut it away behind bars of steel and yet it still leaked through enough to make him too emotional, subject to punishment and ridicule. Seeing her made it all rush to the surface, enough to choke, to drown him. “I survived. Barely. Half of me is…”

Rey followed his train of thought, having already seen his eye. She sat up a bit further, and rested her hand on his right arm. It felt like the correct shape, but it was hard like stone without a layer of flesh and muscle to cushion it. She squeezed her hand up to his shoulder, which felt just as artificial. Tears glistened in the corners of her eyes. “If I had known... _ Ben _ .” 

A sob escape, small and totally insignificant of her emotional whirlpool, but she hurt all over from her fall and that was all she had to give.

Lips parted, he lifted his hand and rested trembling fingers against her cheek. His glove was warm, signalling a real, organic limb underneath and Rey pressed her face against it before her eyes flew open. She had so many questions and no time to ask them.

“Ben!” She struggled to sit upright, using him for balance, her hands dug into his jacket. “The heart...the heart I’m taking. It’s for Leia.” Her eyes were big, wide, anxious and scared.

The name sunk sluggishly into his brain.  _ Leia.  _ His mother. He hadn’t thought about her in years. It was too painful of a memory to crack open. He looked up at the numerous hovers speeding overhead, the lines of their flight etching into his brain.

“Ben,” Rey said, gripping the strap that held his lightblade in place. The blade that had almost killed her. She couldn’t touch his skin, too scared that if she did he would disappear. “You...you have to let me go. You can’t take it. It’s for Leia.”

Snoke was going to kill him. His mind whirled through possible outcomes, most of them ending in his death. But he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t leave Rey here, injured and let his mother die in a hospital. He was already calculating other things he could do to stop his demise. “Okay,” he heard himself say as if he were an observer on the scene.

“Help me stand up.”

He did. Rey winced and gasped as her muscles stretched and pressure was put on them. The bodysuit had saved her life, as had her helmet, but she was worried how she would feel tomorrow. But she couldn’t stop and think about it now. She motioned for her helmet and he watched as her face disappeared within it. Her hands were still warm and solid, holding onto him to keep balanced. 

“There’s not much time left,” Rey said, reading her helmet. BeeBee’s worried warning on the screen blinked, but the ‘bot didn’t speak.

Ben-- _ Kylo _ pulled on his own helmet, feeling trapped, like it was a cage, but he needed it. He needed to stay anonymous and he needed it to hide his emotions. He helped her onto his bike and got on behind her, leaning around to take the handlebars, taking a light EM from the rooftop to the upper lane where her bike still idled. She got on with gasps of pain, his hands on her waist to steady her, and gripped the handlebars as her head swam.

“Can you make it?” he asked, his voice softer through her helmet than ever before.

“Yes,” she said, because she had to. It wasn’t like he could take it, he didn’t have the clearance codes. “But Ben...I…” There was too much to say, too much to ask. “Can I tell your father?”

He ground his teeth together. “No. I need to think things through.”

“I have to go,” Rey said, not wanting to leave him. What if she never saw him again? What if the next time they saw each other, she actually did die? What if Snoke sent a different Knight after her? But she couldn’t dwell. “I have to go.”

“Go,” he encouraged. “Please.”

She looked at him, unable to see anything through his blacked out helmet, but wondering how she never realized it was him under all that black. It didn’t matter now. Wincing in pain, she shot forward on her speeder toward the hospital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really, really do try editing, but I can only do so much reading my own stuff! Sorry for any mistakes.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've worked out the rest of the chapters! It will be a little bittersweet of an ending, but it will hopefully be satisfying! I hope you enjoy this next installment.
> 
> Sorry it was posted a day late! Hopefully the next chapters will go back on the normal schedule of Monday and Thursday uploads!

Kylo was sitting outside of the hospital on the same landing level where Rey had left her speeder. He should have gone directly back to Snoke’s, but he’d had EyeGee cut off contact with the Sith servers, leaving him blissfully alone for the first time in years. It reminded him of his father-- _ god damn _ , his  _ father _ \--had been more into human contact than doing things over the wire. A man from another time.

How could he have forgotten?

He rubbed a gloved hand over his face, pressing fingers against his closed eyelids. So much slipped away so easily; a blink and it was gone. Trying to grasp for memories was like reaching for wisps of smoke in the night. 

He remembered Rey only just; flashes, snapshots but not the whole picture. The curve of her jaw in his hand, her voice echoing in his ears. He felt her arms around him on a speeder, his nose brushing across her freckled cheeks. Tucking hair behind her ear, dipping down low and whispering his love for her so only she could hear. 

His chest felt tight at the thought of her, squeezing out emotions he hadn’t felt since he woke on a cold table in Snoke’s so called ‘care’. But most of any concrete memory was gone. The emotion however...it stained his heart and his soul, even if his brain was scarred.

So he stood there, leaning against his hover, eyes searching the building. He couldn’t go in, though he had caught a glimpse of Rey, stiff from her fall, when she walked inside. She’d been in there for a long time.

He should leave before she came back outside. The logical part of his brain told him to do so. But what would that achieve? Nothing. At least here, he could pretend he wasn’t going back to Snoke’s to face his inevitable death. He wondered what would happen...would Snoke get one of the other Knights to fight him? Would it be a sneak attack, plunging a sedative into his vein and prying out what working organs he had left while he still breathed and felt? Would it be even more inhuman, sicking the small army of ‘droids on him with their precise movements and steel plating to protect them?

Kylo was not going to rush back to any of that without a plan. 

Rey was inside for hours before he saw her come out, looking a little less stiff, helmet tucked under her arm. The light breeze filtered through the safety force field tugged at the strands of hair that had fallen loose from the tie at the back of her head. 

Kylo closed the distance between them on silent feet. “Rey.”

She jumped, fumbling her helmet. “ _ Kriff _ .”

He stopped a few feet away, hovering,  _ waiting _ . She turned, helmet set on her seat, and took one look at him before her eyes welled up with tears.

“I thought I was dreaming,” she whispered out.

“No.” He moved toward her like there was a magnetic pull between them, unable to keep away.

Rey blinked away her tears and tilted her head back to look at him. “I was...I was afraid before,” she said, voice still barely audible. 

She had parked quite perfectly in a tiny square of space not highly cam’d; Kylo had also had EyeGee block any cameras in the area before he walked over. The last thing he needed was a ‘bot back at HQ to see this.

“Afraid,” he stated. Of course, why wouldn’t she be? He’d been attacking her for years, stealing her livelihood. He nearly  _ killed _ her just hours before.

Her breath caught in her throat and she lifted a small hand, encased in a small leather glove, her fingers showing. “I was afraid if I touched you, you would disappear,” she continued. “Like a phantom. Like I would...I would lose you again.”

Kylo couldn’t help but flinch when she touched his face, but his eyes were unguarded and it didn’t deter her from stroking her thumb against his cheek.

“Why didn’t you come back?”

“I...I didn’t know I had anything to come back to,” he admitted, head tilted into her touch, eyes closed at the gentleness of her hand. “My brain was injured...I don’t have all of my memories.”

He felt her stiffen just a little. “Do you know who I am? Truly?”

“Yes.” Eyes opened, he pulled the glove off his left hand, showing flesh and not machine. His fingers shook as he brushed them over her jaw, hooking his index finger under her chin, barely touching her skin. “Yes. Not really anything cohesive but I…” He couldn’t say the words.

Her eyes are glossy again. “Ben…” Her other hand fell to his chest. His hand was now cupping her face, fingers tangling in the soft curls of her hair behind her neck. A tiny frown appeared on her face. “How is this possible?”

Kylo’s lips parted, ready to speak, but he stopped himself. Let himself feel the softness of her, her warmth and  _ life _ , and then he stepped back, breaking the contact between them. “Snoke,” he said, and Rey came to her senses right in front of him. He saw it in the way her eyes cleared and hardened, the way her shoulders squared and she crossed her arms tightly. “He found me, gave me all of this,” he waved his flesh hand toward the right side of his body, “and I’m in his debt.”

She swallowed hard, staring at him. He imagined she was trying to fit together the Ben Solo she knew and the man he was in now, standing before her. “In his  _ debt _ ?” she repeated, voice low, but for a different reason this time. There was a bite, a bitterness to it.

He tugged his glove back on, mechanized fingers of his right hand deftly working as if they were what he was born with. “Yes. You...he owns me, Rey. I can’t refuse him.”

She blinked, face skewed, processing. “Why not?”

“He’ll kill me.”

“Why not leave?”

“He would kill me.”

She placed her hands on her hips. “This is crazy. You should just come back with me.”

“No.” The word comes out faster, harsher than he intends and she takes a tiny step back. “If I do, then  _ you _ and everyone working for my father will become targets. More so than you already are. Your business is good for Snoke’s business, which is why he hasn’t killed my father yet. But if I left, he would know. He would come after all of you and there would be no escape.”

Rey’s face turned grave as he spoke. She pushed her hands over her hair, wincing as her shoulder twinged. He could  _ see it _ , the spasm in her muscles and he inched toward her. “That...fuck, that makes sense. Stupid kriffing sense, but that’s the world we live in.” Her breathing was short and she met his gaze. “What am I supposed to do? I can’t just ignore the fact that you’re…” Whatever she was going to say didn’t matter.

“Forget about me,” Kylo told her. Her eyebrows snapped to an angry V. “Forget that you know who I am.”

“Why?”

“Rey…” His face softened, sad and pained. “The things I’ve done. You...you don’t know everything. Some things can’t be undone or washed clean.”

“Ben. I can’t just forget that you’re still alive. I don’t care what you’ve done.” Even as she spoke the words, he heard her conviction falter.

“You will. Give it time.” 

“I won’t,” she whispered without much confidence. He turned to leave. “Please...Ben. Don’t go.”

He paused, jaw clenched. 

Her next words were almost enough to break him. To make an impossible choice:

“I love you. Don’t leave.” 

_ Kriff _ . Kylo took a deep breath, turned and walked toward her. Her face was crumpled with emotion, a few tears trailing down to her chin. He cupped his hands around her heartbroken face and leaned down, crashing his lips against hers. She slid her hands around his wrists, shaking and warm and familiar. His body came to life with the memory of her, but the longer he stayed the harder this would be.

He broke off the kiss just as abruptly as he started it, leaving her gasping, wide eyed. 

“Rey…” He couldn’t say the words. How could he even be  _ allowed _ to feel this feeling of  _ home _ after the things he had done. Instead, he hooked his fingers behind her head and pulled her against his chest for a brief moment, just to  _ feel _ her. She barely got her arms around him before he was moving back, pressing his lips against her forehead and then turning away.

She didn’t cry out for him, but he heard a smothered sob as he walked back across the landing pad, never looking back.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back to those alternating perspectives, this chapter is mostly Rey's inner monologue after the events of the past two chapters! A real heartstring tugger.

It took an eternity for Rey to return home. She couldn’t face the rest of the operation, set up in the very place where she had first met Ben Solo, and headed to her apartment instead. The trip from the hospital across the city was surreal, a blur. She was in pain despite the treatment she had gotten after handing the organic heart over for Leia Organa-Solo’s life-saving operation. 

Rey had sat on a cold table and let a med-’droid scan her and give her a shot in her arm to dull the pain and then a prescription to be sent to her door by the morning. And then... _ Ben _ , waiting for her, tugging at her heart, twisting a knife in her gut, healing and hurting her all at once. She could hardly stomach it, watching him leave.

By the time she exchanged Kira’s bike for her own speeder, registered under her true name, Rey was running on autopilot. She even let BeeBee drive the hover to her building’s landing pad. 

She slumped against the wall in the lift and dragged her feet to her door. Her place was small, just enough space for one person to live and stretch their legs. BeeBee immediately jumped into its core processor as Rey put her helmet down and winced at the automatic lights. The ‘bot turned them down to a dim setting.

Rey peeled off her outer layers of clothes, letting them fall to the floor. The bodysuit encasing her like a second skin was harder to get off with her stiff and shaking fingers. Eventually she got out of it, leaving her in thin underwear, which she stripped off as well.

With what little strength she still had, she stepped into her bathroom, her shower stall a simple small square with a clear door. She stood facing the stream of water, letting it wash over her face as she hissed in pain, her hands running through her hair.

Once her hair was thoroughly soaked, the floor slipped out from under her, twist and tilting and Rey squeezed her eyes shut, her hands slamming out against the opposite wall to keep her balance. Head bowed, the water drummed onto her curved neck, streaming around her face and down her back.

The sobs came slowly. Tears at first, huffing out air, trying to calm herself, but there was no stopping it. Her shoulders shook and her fingers dug for purchase against the smooth tile as the first small, hiccuped sob escaped her lips. The next was louder, rolling through her whole body. And the next and the next, ripping through her like a hurricane, roiling and massive.

By the time the water ran cold, Rey felt raw and sore inside and out. Without even bothering to wash, she stepped out, teeth chattering from the cold. Her eyes were red and blurred in the mirror above the sink. Her back, from what she could see, was already starting to brown into a bruise. She was going to look as broken on the outside as she felt on the inside over the next few weeks.

After scraping and wringing as much water from her hair as she could, Rey walked through her dark apartment and collapsed on her bed. It was big, bigger than she needed, and it made it so much worse.

_ He could fit here _ , her brain, her torturous brain, told her as she curled up on her side amid the mess of covers. She never made the bed. It used to drive Ben crazy.

Sniffling, Rey grabbed one of her many pillows and hugged it against her chest, curling up in the fetal position, her hair soaking quickly through the pillowcase under her head. Tears joined them, salty and hot, running streaks down Rey’s face, over her nose, pooling in the corner of her eyes.

How was she supposed to live now?

She felt like she was reliving Ben’s death all over again. A wound she had been desperately trying to keep closed with haphazard stitches and bandages, was ripped open so violently tonight she didn’t know if she could ever recover.

How could she ever compile the memories she had of Ben with the disastrous memories she had of Kylo? Attacking her countless times, stealing organs from her over the past years, and  _ tonight _ , nearly killing her. He would have succeeded if she didn’t have her enhanced boots; if she hadn’t been wearing her bodysuit; if the nearest building had been shorter…

Rey’s stomach roiled as silent tears continued to coat her face, her chin trembling.

Her heart ached at the thought of Ben, scared and alone and broken, waking up to having manufactured limbs and organs suddenly part of his body, his soul and life tethered to someone as horrid as Snoke. If she had known... _ if she had known _ she would have fought to find him. But Han Solo, his own heart broken, had assured her that no one could have escaped that explosion.

The man had become even more sullen after that, knowing his own business, his actions and choices, had cost him the life of his son.

Rey had spent years trying to move on from Ben and she never could. Every second she stopped, every moment she wasn’t distracted, the pain of losing him had stabbed her in the heart.

This was ten times worse. This was...unimaginable. She didn’t have the words to encompass the breadth of her emotions.

Fear, longing, agony...happiness, melancholy, guilt...everything swirled into a cocktail she could make no sense of.

He was Ben...but he wasn’t. He wasn’t Ben...but he still was. She had seen it, flashes of it, in his face, dancing across his one eye still capable of conveying something akin to love.

Shivering and sniffling in her bed, Rey lifted her fingertips to her lips, memorizing the feeling of his lips against hers. That was real; that was just as she remembered. The warmth of his breath, his plush mouth pressing against hers, the weight of his hand on her neck…

_ Kriff _ , she wished he hadn’t kissed her. Now she was stuck with a pang of yearning deep inside of her  _ for him _ . Because now she knew he was alive somewhere in this cursed city, that he was taking in breath and surviving...because of that, she wanted him back in his entirety, selfishly ignoring his faults and his transgressions.

She understood, at the surface level, why she couldn’t tell anyone. Why he couldn’t stay or come back with her. But that didn’t reach her emotions. Her heart wanted him even when her mind knew that it was an impossibility.

Her mind continued to spiral and her tears did run out eventually. She fell asleep sometime, dragging covers over her naked body at one point, hands twisting into fists in her clutched pillow.

She awoke, head fuzzy and face dry from the salt of her tears, to a soft pinging on her home screen. BeeBee was keeping it quiet as to not wake her rudely.

Rey shuddered into movement, rolling onto her back, stiff and aching all over. She could barely get herself out of bed, but she saw that a ‘droid messenger had left her prescription so she got to her feet, wrapped in a sheet. It took her agonizing minutes to get a glass of water and take one of the tablets in the small bottle.

Medicine was like steroids now, reacting almost immediately to your body. It was just a few minutes later that Rey was able to move without whimpering in pain or hissing out a curse. Once she downed another glass of water to sate her parched throat, she shuffled to her soft cushioned chair in front of the projected screen on the wall next to her bed. 

The bright holokeyboard flickered to life at the perfect angle and height for her hands. “What’s that, BeeBee?” Rey asked sleepily, rubbing her sleepy eyes.

“An encrypted message. I wasn’t able to break through it. It could be a virus or an attempted hack.”

Rey frowned, looking at the little blinking icon on the screen. Something tugged at her center, like a string attached to her navel. She leaned forward, hands hovering over the keys. “No, it’s not,” she said. She was mildly good at hacking; enough to get through any stolen hovers or racers when she was thieving and scrapping for Plutt. But this took a while.

There were layer upon layer of codes to sift through, and finally,  _ finally _ , one last passcode. Rey thought about it a lot, wondering just how much memory he had retained, what he would remember. It couldn’t be as simple as just her name, or his. Sucking in a breath, praying that the message would let her try again if this was wrong, she typed in the name of the building he’d taken her to on their first date: NABOO.

The message chirped and opened, pushing an aggravated BeeBee into the recesses of its processor so the ‘bot couldn’t snoop. 

Clutching her sheet around her, Rey leaned forward and squinted at the letters hovering on the screen:  _ You don’t have to worry. I fixed everything. _

Something akin to fear, foreboding and excitement wrangled together in her chest. That could mean anything, good or bad. Rey swallowed hard and reached her hands forward to type out a response.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're nearing the end! i will admit that there are many ways for this to go and i'm still trying to piece it together. it will not be a HEA in the regular sense; maybe bittersweet, maybe a little dark and twisty like the rest of the fic, maybe a bit like the end of TLJ...we'll see!

Kylo drove around the city, thinking into the wee hours of the morning. The city never slept, and while he should, he couldn’t. There was nowhere safe for him to rest, not until it was  _ done _ . 

It wasn’t easy, but he pushed Rey from his mind, tucking her away into the dark recesses so he could focus on what had to be done. His shoulder was thankfully healed from his firefight with Hondo; Snoke spared no expense when it came to medical care. A thought that would be funny if it wasn’t so detestable. Being at full strength would put him at an advantage.

Once his mind was set, Kylo started toward the HQ. He passed by the massive, hulking POD-racer stadium, bright with lights and loud with engines and crowds. He was tiny, an insect on his hover bike as he raced by and headed toward Snoke’s main building.

No pings or messages came across his visor. The Knights didn’t care about each other’s well beings; they were colleagues at best, sharing a common job and that was all. Kylo had EyeGee search for who was currently in.

“Master Snoke, Armitage Hux, Cardo, Ap’lek and Ren,” the ‘bot rattled off. The rest of the building was filled with other ‘bots and ‘droids and the Nightsisters, who were loaners from Lady Daka andnot at all loyal to Snoke so they would not be a problem for him. Kylo wondered for a moment where Bazine was, but perhaps she wasn’t glued to Snoke’s side at all times like he’d always thought. Ap’lek was a beast with short knives, but he liked Kylo as much as someone in their profession could like one another. Cardo had a robotic limb, same as most of the Knights, his more militarized than useful for everyday use. And Ren...Kylo’s gloves creaked as he squeezed his hands around his handlebars.

He could do this.

Parking his bike on the landing pad, Kylo walked inside, reaching deep into the well of calm at his center and letting it wash over him. Inside the Knight’s recreation area, Cardo and Ap’lek were playing poker with holocards and thousands of credits tossed around like they were petty coins. Ren was shirtless and going at it with a battle ‘droid, the skeletal biomech arm of him standing out clearly against his upper arm.

The two sitting barely acknowledged him with more than a nod, focused on their game.  _ Good _ . Kylo pulled off his helmet slowly and placed it on the high table that had been replaced since he last used it to fight Ren. 

“What took you so long?” Ren asked, sweat soaking his white hair, his scarred chest heaving. He gave the ‘droid another metallic punch and then ended the training session. There was an antagonizing tone laced through every word that left Ren’s mouth. “Don’t tell me you actually found somewhere to wet your dick...no, you’re more machine than man aren’t you?  _ Kylo _ . A ‘droid then?”

Kylo walked slowly to the middle of the room, dark floor smooth and solid under his boots. He kept his face neutral, which just pissed Ren off more. Was he  _ asking _ for this? Kylo didn’t really care either way. He needed to do what he needed to do and he didn’t give a shit about what the other parties thought or wanted.

If Ren wanted to die, Kylo was more than happy to oblige.

“Cat got your tongue?” Ren continued, stopping a few feet in front of Kylo. He was shorter than Kylo, showing his age in the thinning of his muscles, countless scars from decades of work for Snoke. How could he not have wanted  _ more _ , ever? Perhaps he did. But now he was just a sad, beaten dog who didn’t have a lot of fight left in him.

“I’ve been waiting for this,” Kylo said finally, already two steps ahead in his mind. Ren tilted his head to the side, realization coming over his face too late. Kylo moved fast--faster than an old man, faster than anyone should be able to. But like everyone kept telling him, he was part machine and machines could always move faster than humans.

The lightblade was in his hand in an instant, the blade lit with a flick of his thumb. Ren lifted his biomech and the blade sliced through it at the elbow like it was made of butter. Kylo heard the Knights behind him get to their feet as he spun, sliding the sword through Ren’s chest, cleaving through his heart and killing him instantly.

The man sagged and slid off the weapon, which Kylo powered down and flicked the blood off of. He turned to the Knights, who stood, poised and ready. Ap’lek with his sharp, deadly blades in hand, Cardo’s massive right arm, currently affixed with a flamethrower, pointed at Kylo’s chest. 

Kylo, hands out slight to his sides, tilted his head, eyes sharp and piercing. They said  _ Really? Try me. _

The tension in the air was palpable as they stared each other down. Finally, Ap’lek slid his daggers into their sheaths at his sides and tapped Cardo’s arm, once, twice, three times hard and they stood down.

Kylo didn’t say anything else, stepping around the pool of blood from Ren’s body and toward the lift.

Snoke knew, and the doors still opened, letting him in. 

The wall and ceilingless lift flew up and Kylo barely kept his balance. His heart was beating fast in his chest from anticipation, adrenaline, and a thin veil of fear. He would use the fear to keep himself alive. It was the only way. Survival on the edge, backed into a corner, was just fear  _ amplified _ .

He kept his breathing as even as he could as the lift stopped. The doors didn’t open immediately. Thinking fast, Kylo pressed himself against the side of the elevator shaft just as the doors opened, revealing three ‘droids, blasting electric charges that dug into the concrete wall opposite, rather than into Kylo’s chest. 

Reaching into his pocket, Kylo pulled out the only thing that was going to make sure he got out of this room. He’d picked it up during his traverse through the city, between the hospital and the HQ. Pressing the button on the small, circular disk, he tossed it at the ‘droids feet and a moment later, they shorted out, unable to divert the direct power surge.

Kylo stepped out, slicing through their cores with his blade so they couldn’t regain power and attack him from behind.

Synthspice choked the air and Snoke sat where he always did, on his throne. Hux was nowhere to be seen, probably cowering. He didn’t have the stomach for violence despite his chosen employer.

Kylo walked silently to the same place he’d stood weeks ago, getting his assignment to prove his loyalty. Kylo’s eyes flickered to the security screen floating in the air, showing the dead and bleeding Ren. No one had moved his body yet, not even the Nightsisters.

“I see your aspirations have grown,” Snoke said, his voice deep and grating behind his mask. 

Kylo’s gaze bore into the black holes where Snoke’s eyes should be. He adjusted his grip on his lightblade.

“I’m proud of you.” Snoke laughed humorlessly. “In our line of business, you kill, and you take their place. You’ll be the head of the Knights now.”

He scoffed. “Is that what you think I want?” He leveled his bloodstained blade at Snoke.

“Oh.” If Kylo could see Snoke’s face, he imagined the man’s eyebrows would have shot up and his mouth open in mock fear before hardening into a deadly glare. “Now you’re thinking too highly of yourself.” 

With a snap of his gloved fingers, the remainder of Snoke’s ‘droids came to life from behind him in a semicircle. Their arms were ended in deadly blades. Snoke wasn’t a fan of blasters; they were too destructive to organs that could otherwise be harvested.

Kylo had been counting on that. He ducked, dodged and used his arm and his blade to block. The machines were faster than him by milliseconds, but he managed to slice off three arms and then stab one ‘droid through the core processor. He hissed as one cut through to his organic arm, cutting clean but deep. 

Gritting his teeth, he swung his blade around, buying him space before he took out another, leaving him facing three, two of which were missing an arm. Sweat dampened his hair and trailed into his eyes, but he focused, never able to pause for even a second. They came at him and he felt the bite of their blades against his flesh and heard the clang of them sliding over his biomech.

By the time he grabbed his second pulser from his pocket, there were two stubborn ‘droids left. He tossed it forward. They went down in a cascade of sparks.

Without waiting, Kylo stepped to the side and swung his lightblade, crackling with pure energy, at Snoke.

That would have been too easy. The giant of a man had grabbed a weapon of his own, a long sword that was just that: a sword. Pure metal, nothing extra about it. Kylo’s lightblade just notched the edge, not cutting all the way through.

_ Kriff _ .

Kylo stumbled backward over ‘droid carcasses and found himself under equipped against the massive blade. He would just have to be  _ faster _ .

Snoke was big, and he was slow, lumbering, as if his limbs wouldn’t quite listen to him. Kylo used everything to his advantage, his right eye picking out all the openings, giving him a leg up; he hoped.

His fear peaked as he barely jumped back from a swing of the sword that would have spilled his guts on the floor, bodysuit be damned. Crouched on the floor, Kylo had enough time for one deep breath before he rose, snatching up the arm of a droid and using it to cross with his lightblade, blocking the downward stroke from Snoke’s massive blade.

“Not today, young Kylo,” the big man said, so sure he was going to walk out of here alive.

Kylo ground his teeth together, putting all his strength in throwing the sword back and up. It left him with a half second opening. He lunged forward, sinking the ‘droid’s armblade into Snoke’s chest where his heart should have been and then sweeping his lightblade across Snoke’s neck.

There was a sickening thud as the disembodied head fell to the floor, followed by the clatter of the massive sword. Snoke’s body fell in a clatter over the discarded ‘droid arms and torsos.

Kylo stood there, chest heaving, finally able to suck in well needed breaths, hand still tight around his lightblade. 

“Impressive.”

At the voice, Kylo swung around, blade out, pointing. Hux, his pale face and red hair standing out from the dark interior of the room, held his hands up in surrender, eyeing the blade close to his throat. Kylo blinked and then lowered his weapon, spinning it with a twist of his wrist.

“I can delete all the footage of your...exploits, if you’d like to keep it under wraps,” the man offered, not perturbed by the expired ‘droids or Snoke.

Kylo waved a hand, mind catching up to himself. He stood over Snoke’s body and kicked it, feeling the hardness of biomech and the softness of flesh. Crouching down, he yanked the mask off the dead Sith leader’s head. He was human; once upon a time, at least. His face was twisted and lopsided, like he’d been in some kind of accident. Kylo’s nose wrinkled and he shoved ‘droids aside with his feet before sitting down in the throne. It was more comfortable than it looked. His blade hung from his hand, arm resting on the rest at his side.

“Scrub it but keep it on a separate server,” Kylo told Hux. “And where is Bazine?”

“She had a uh…” Hux paused as he tried to find safe places amid ‘droid and human body parts to step toward his holoscreen and keyboard. “A prior engagement.”

“Call her back. Clean this up. No one knows.”

“No one ever does,” Hux assured him, sitting down and furiously typing. 

Kylo sat there, jaw working to loosen, the weight of what he’d done settling on him. He knew that Rey-- _ kriff _ just letting her name flicker across his mind made him feel ready to fold--would never be safe, no matter what, if Snoke kept drawing breath. At least now,  _ he _ would have the control of the entire Sith empire. He could protect her, the only way he could now that this was his life.

He lifted his right hand, transferring his lightblade to his left, and took a glove finger in between his teeth, sliding the black glove off his biomech hand. It was black and veined with red; truly a masterpiece. But it also made him a monster. He had killed many people with just this one limb.

Rey deserved better, deserved to live, to thrive, to no longer have to fear getting attack on her runs.

He settled back in his seat as Hux’s mutterings filled the air. “IG-11,” he said, and the ‘bot appeared on the small port screen in the arm of the chair, a shapeless wave of lines. “Clear the synthspice distribution from the vents. I don’t want that kriffing poison in my air. And set me up an encrypted line.”

The ‘bot answered with action, doing just as Kylo asked. The air was sucked clean from the room, and a few moments later, a Nightsister, pale skinned with black tattoos across her face, stepped into the room. Her eyes swept over the carnage, her high thin heels stepping over the pool of blood and black synthetic liquid pool from Snoke’s body.

Her eyes, pale, almost white, flickered over Kylo, taking in his dark hair, his blood flecked face, his ease in the seat like a big cat ready to pounce but knowing it had the higher ground...a smirk twisted on her face. “You wanted this,” she offered up a small device, barely bigger than her hand. Kylo took it and she stepped back. “My sisters and I can handle this, if you’d like.”

Kylo looked at her as she motioned toward the mess. “Take whatever you want. There’s another body downstairs.” 

The Nightsister bowed her head and spoke in a language Kylo didn’t recognize to the small com on her wrist before she disappeared inside the lift.

“Uh...sir?” Hux said, twisting around in his seat.

Kylo shoved the encrypted PC into his pocket. “What?” he snapped.

“I contacted Bazine but she will take a while to get back. And the other Knights have returned. They’re requesting an audience.”

Kylo took a deep breath, leaned his lightblade hilt against his knee and tugged on his glove. “Fine. Send them up, if they’re so eager.”

* * *

Kylo couldn’t sleep. Once Snoke’s body and the ‘droids were cleared away, he sent Hux away to whatever floor he made his home, leaving Kylo alone in the room. It was deathly quiet as he pulled the encrypted PC out of his jacket.

He’d been mulling over what to say, if anything, for some time now. He should just let her go. But whatever part of him still had feelings for her, twinged in his chest, his heart squeezing and pulsing.

The small holokeyboard was big enough for his large fingers to type.

**_You don’t have to worry. I fixed everything._ **

It took awhile for her response. He must have dozed off for a short time because he woke with a startle at the device beeping and his blade clanging to the floor. He let it lie there, focused on the screen and Rey’s answer:

_ What did you do? _

**_Self preservation. You wouldn’t want to know._ **

_ Can I see you? Can I tell anyone? _

**_I don’t think that would be a good idea._ ** He wanted to.  _ Fuck _ how he wanted to see her again, but he knew she was his weakness and he couldn’t afford that. Not now, not as the head of the entire Sith organization.

_ Which part? _

**_Both_ ** **.**

_ Don’t you want to see me again? Ben? _

His breath hitched at the use of his name. That was something he’d lost with his memory, but it stuck _now_. He could hear it in his mind in her soft, delicate voice. **_I wouldn't be able to do what I need to if I did_** **.**

_ Why not? _

**_I can’t be who you need me to be and be who I need to be to keep you safe. It has to be one, or the other. And I want you to be alive, to be able to live_ ** **.**

_ How can I live without you? You have no idea how hard these last four years have been. If I stop to think for even a moment, I can’t breathe. I’ve never felt so alone. _

**_I’m still here. You’re not alone. We can have this_ ** **.**

_ This? Secret encrypted pings? Why just this? _

**_Life is unfair, Rey. We should both know this by now._ **

_ Let me join you. _

He had to make her see. Her words were too tempting. He could easily bring her here, protect her, integrate her into his new empire...but she deserved more. He kept reminding himself that and clenched his biomech hand into a fist.  **_Rey...I’m a monster. You don’t know what you’re asking._ **

_ I do. _

**_You don’t. I can’t be here and do what I need to while I worry about you._ **

_ What did you do? _

**_I killed Snoke_ ** **.** There was such a long pause that he thought he had finally done it, finally scared her away. His aching heart continued to twist in his chest even though this is what he told himself he needed to do.  **_I told you. One day, Rey, one day we can see each other again. But you’re no killer, no criminal. You don’t belong at my side._ **

_ I am a criminal. _

**_Petty crimes as a child_ ** **.**

_ I have killed before _ .

**_Self defense doesn’t count. Don’t try to stamp out the light within you for me, Rey. I’m not worth it._ **

Cold blooded murder was not in her veins, he knew this, and he was sure that she knew it too.

_ Okay, Ben. But I refuse to let you go. I’ll find you one day. _

Kylo didn’t want to say anything else, anything that could give her another opening. Instead, he closed off the encryption and the device and moved to his new quarters.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it's the end. I didn't really know how to end this when I started it. It could have gone so many ways and I ended up making it slightly....lighter than it could have ended up.
> 
> It’s been a guilty pleasure to write this fic and I hope those who have read it have enjoyed it as well! Like always, I appreciate all of your interactions and I hope this ending is satisfactory. 
> 
> And a huge, ENORMOUS shoutout to Fran/BensCalligraphySet/galacticidiots, who’s been with me this whole time letting me bounce ideas off of her and helping me shape the plot into what it came to be! Without her this would have definitely been a little lacking and a lot more painful lol

Rey sat back in a dark corner on an uncomfortably hard booth seat. Her hand was wrapped around the stem of a tall glass, her eyes growing sore from the sporadic strobe lights in the club. She didn’t know why she agreed to come here. Half the people were holos, the others were all young like her friends from Han Solo’s company, and none of them were who she wanted to be with.

“It’s a celebration!” Rose Tico had insisted hours earlier, wearing a sparkling black number, standing over a grease-stained Rey who had been fixing hovers all day. “You have to come.”

So Rey had let herself be dressed in something other than her bodysuit, trousers and jacket, in slim fitting pants and a halter top, the techmesh bracer on her arm tight fitting and a cause for distraction. She kept waiting all evening for another ping, another message from someone she should have let go a long time ago.

In the club, she sat back and watched her coworkers, her friends, all dance around to a bass beat so heavy it made her teeth rattle in her jaw. Rey could hardly force a smile on her face that didn’t look pained. 

Months of keeping Ben’s survival a secret had taken its toll. The only good thing she could see out of the situation was that Leia was recovering well from her heart transplant. Han had been putting more and more work on Finn and Rey and spending more time with his wife. At least it meant that she didn’t have to look the man in the eye and keep the secret of his son’s survival.

The secret curled up inside her like an unwelcome guest, staining almost every part of her life.

Rose caught Rey’s eyes in the flashing lights and motioned her to join them but Rey simply shrugged and shook her head, taking a gulp of the crisp, cool alcohol of her drink. It slid down her throat like ice and sent goosebumps over her skin. 

She twisted her wrist and poked at the screen on her bracer. Her messages from Ben weren’t archived. His encryption wiped them after a conversation ended, but she still remembered all of them. Her desperation and determination, and his insistence that she stay away from him. 

**_I did this for you,_ ** he said the last time they’d spoken, days ago. He hadn’t meant to accuse her of forcing his hand, he meant it like a vow. She’d been rolling those words around in her head ever since. He’d killed for her...to keep her safe. Paired with the fear she’d felt when he almost killed her, she should have been perfectly okay with staying away from him.

But the opposite was happening. She couldn’t stop thinking about him, about wanting to be with him, to drag him back to her even if he thought he couldn’t be who she wanted. She didn’t care what he had done, she didn’t want one type of Ben or Kylo, she just wanted  _ him _ .

He didn’t think he deserved it. Rey was beginning to think that she would have to force him to see he was wrong.  _ She _ was not the person he thought she was, whatever young and inexperienced Rey he remembered her being had long since past grown into a woman who carried the weight of loss and her past choices on her shoulders like armor rather than a burden.

She had done things she wasn’t proud of to stay alive; she was a gods-damn criminal despite her legit courier work. 

“Rey!” Finn’s arrival at the table jolted her out of her thoughts. “Come  _ on _ , you have to come dance.”

She was going to protest but this could be the last time...she locked the screen on her bracer and got to her feet. “If you insist,” she said, putting on a smile that was as genuine as she could make it. He took her hand and pulled her toward the group of them: Rose and Poe and Paige and Kaydel and Jannah. 

Rey pushed aside all of her thoughts, focusing on the moment. It wasn’t like she wasn’t happy for the big client break, the waves of legit cash that would be coming in, but it was hard to be happy when half of her life was off somewhere where she couldn’t quite reach. She tried to be happy.

* * *

By the time the festivities came to an end, they had to pile into a shuttle, all too drunk for anything else. Rey was the only one clear headed. She sat in a corner seat and pulled up the screen on her arm. It was a light encryption on her end, and she should have waited until she was back at her flat, but she sent it anyway.

_ I can’t keep this a secret any longer _ .

She didn’t know if she meant it as a threat or a promise. She didn’t get a reply until she was home, long after she saw off the others at the garage. She took her speeder home, needing to catch some sleep before her very last courier run. Then everything would change.

**_Are you going to tell my father?_ **

Rey stripped off her clubbing clothes and sat in front of her screen, working through the countless layers of encryption to get to the message.  _ No, I have other ideas _ .

**_Rey, don’t do anything stupid. Please. I’m doing this to keep you safe. It’s worth nothing if you get hurt._ **

Rey’s lips parted, warm breath slipping between them as she thought of how to answer.  _ I won’t get hurt if you’ve done what you’ve said you’ve done _ .

She didn’t want to goad him, but she didn’t want to tell him her plan in case he ruined it trying to save her. She believed him, that he killed Snoke, that he was the head of the Sith organization now. No one had attacked her on her trips in the past six months, nor had any other courier had anything more than a mild scuffle with a Knight since then.

Ben was changing the Sith from the inside out, but Rey didn’t know how far he would go to keep her away from him. And she didn’t want to be. It was  _ her _ choice.

He didn’t reply, so she sent another message:  _ I just want to be by your side. _

**_The Sith are not like my father’s business. You don’t belong here._ **

_ You don’t get to make that choice for me. You can’t tell me that you don’t want to see me. I know you do, or you would have stopped talking to me. _

**_I should have._ **

_ But you didn’t. You want me. I know it. _

There was a long time before he responded.  **_I do_ ** .

_ Your future is with me, Ben. I’ve seen it in my dreams for years. Whatever is going on, I’ll be with you. I’ll help you. _

She could imagine him, wherever he was, battling with himself, his replies coming in slower and slower. She wished she could make him see, make it easier for him. So she wrote more and more until everything she had to say had been said.

**_Tell me what you’re planning._ **

_ I won’t. But it will be okay. We’ll be with each other soon. _

She logged herself out and sat back in the chair. The path she had chosen was not straightforward; her life had never been straight and narrow. But it was hers and she would make the best of it. Even as a stab of guilt hit her heart at the thought of betraying those who cared about her...she had to do this. No matter who she hurt in the process. 

Their hurt was minimal to the gaping wound in her soul that had been there ever since Ben’s not-so-permanent death.

* * *

The thing with being involved in the criminal underbelly of Coruscant was that you learned things. Whether you wanted to or not, you absorbed knowledge, networks, tricks of the trade. Rey was keenly observant and had been collecting a whole library of information like this ever since she was a kid starving on the streets.

But now,  _ now _ she had clearance and names. She felt a little bad cracking through Finn’s security, but it had to be done. Her last courier job--a pair of lungs--had been delivered smoothly, and she had no more loose ties.

She left Kira’s bike on the shop floor and took her own to the destination. It took a lot of time to get there, and her heart was loud but steady as she walked into the building. She used her stolen trader codes to get into the door. It closed behind her, sealing her off from the world outside. She caught her breath and walked into the lobby.

The building was high tech and dark. She thought perhaps entire walls were cams and she felt utterly exposed. But she had no weapons, so they couldn’t target her for that.

A tall, thin woman in a skin-tight dress walked out of a shadowy door frame with a glowing PC in her hand. “What do you want?” she asked, tone brisk and sharp.

“I’m here to talk to Orri Tenro,” Rey said, shoulders squared, chin up.

The woman looked from the PC to Rey’s face with a sneer. “I’m sorry, you can’t just walk in here asking for an audience.”

“I have trader codes,” Rey pushed. “How the hell else would I have gotten in here?”

The woman’s eyes--blue, biomech, probably scanning her for weapons one more time--narrowed. “Who are you? What are you offering?”

“I’m from Han Solo’s ring,” Rey said, keeping her voice steady even as she said the words that would seal her fate. “And I’m offering myself.”

The woman’s thin eyebrows raised and she took a scathing look at Rey from toe to scalp. “Is that so?”

“Yes. One hundred percent organic.” Rey tried to ignore the feeling of her skin crawling as she talked about herself like she was some sort of cattle for the slaughter line.

“Hmmmm.” The woman pressed her fingers to the PC in her hand, scanned pages too fast for the human eye to see, and then nodded. “Fine. Come with me.”

Rey followed her into an entirely dark lift, lit only by the glowing blue screen in the woman’s hand. Rey rubbed her palms on her trousers.

The woman left Rey in an equally dark room for at least half an hour. Her legs started to cramp as she waited and yet her resolve never faltered. This was going to work, she kept telling herself. It would get back to the Solo crew and they would hate her for a while, but they would forget her after a while, just another bad investment.

By the time the door opened, revealing a stream of light so bright it hurt her eyes, Rey’s heart and nerves had settled. She walked into the room, squinting at the light streaming down from the ceiling. Orri Tenro sat behind a sleek black desk. His skin was blue, his hair was white--obvious enhancements. He looked alien.

“You work for Han Solo, do you?” the man asked. He was wearing an all-white suit. Rey half expected the blue of his skin to stain the fabric, but it remained crisp and pristine as he sat back in his chair and looked her up and down.

“I do. I did. Depending on if you’ll take my offer.”

“Hmmm.” She knew he had his assistant test her story. It would be true. There were no holes in her life that couldn’t be traced. “You’re very pretty.”

Rey blinked. “Thank you.”

The man stood and rounded the desk, eyes on Rey like a predator. He circled around her and she kept herself from fisting her hands at his gaze raking over her body. “I can see potential. Aren’t you worried about,” he paused in front of her, lifting a blue hand to her face, hovering just over her skin, “scarring, my dear?”

“No such thing in this world,” Rey said, voice hard and even. “Not unless you want them.”

“True.” His lips twitched and he stepped back. She could tell that his mind was whirling through business possibilities. “Are you offering more than just yourself? Say, insider information?”

Rey took in an even breath, hoping this would go the way she wanted. “Not to you.”

“Oh?” Tenro chuckled. “Are you double dealing?”

“No. But I needed to get face to face with you so you could make a deal for me.”

Tenro leaned back against his desk. “I’m listening.”

“I do have information about Han Solo’s organization. I won’t sell it to  _ you _ . I want an audience with the Sith.”

Tenro’s hairless eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Oh, you’re being serious are you?” He laughed. “You can’t just request an audience with the Sith, no matter how pretty you are. No one sees the Sith leader, that is the point of their secrecy and long reign.”

Rey once again kept her sarcastic, biting thoughts to herself. “They’re under a new leader now. Did you know that?” 

“I’ve heard the rumors.”

“They’ve been looking for me. You can tell them that. And you’ll get a reward more than you can imagine. I assure you.”

The crime syndicate boss looked at her, surveying for weaknesses and finding none. “Why don’t you go to them yourself?”

“You just said it: their secrecy is what makes them powerful. Not just anyone can walk into their headquarters.” She was pushing it now, baiting Tenro’s own ego. Afterall,  _ she _ had gotten into  _ his _ building with simple stolen codes.

“I would be sad to lose such young, viable organs. I could just keep you for myself.”

Rey shrugged and crossed her arms, her mind set. “But I’ve gotten you intrigued, haven’t I?” 

Tenro’s eyes narrowed. “Damn you. There is more to you than meets the eye, isn’t there, little courier?”

Rey smirked. “You have no idea.”

* * *

Rey did not feel safe in Tenro’s care, but she knew she would be safer to stay in his offered room in his mostly-secure building than to return to her apartment. She got snatches of sleep as deals were made behind closed doors. She wondered how many murderers and organ snatchers were just doors away. 

By the time she was retrieved, she was anxious. She had no way of knowing if she was walking into a trap or toward her future as she followed the same woman in skin-tight clothes through black corridors to Tenro’s blinding office. Rey couldn’t read his face, to see if he was angry or pleased.

He let her stand there and squirm. 

“I don’t know what intel you have, but the Sith agreed to take you.”

“And your reward?” Rey pressed, curious now. 

“Significant.” Tenro tilted his head toward her. “I’d ask what a lovely young woman did to get herself involved with the world’s biggest, baddest boss but I thank you for coming to me first.”

Rey had come to him because he was the  _ nicest _ of the small crime bosses she could find that had a direct connection with the Sith; long and steady, Tenro and the Sith had worked in conjunction for decades. She had chosen correctly. “When does the deal take place?”

“Oh you’ll get your ride today, my dear. And my money transfer once the Supreme Leader sets his eyes on you.”

Rey couldn’t stop the twitch in her face. “You call the head of the Sith Supreme Leader?”

Annoyance flashed in Tenro’s eyes. “It’s a title of respect from the old days.”

Rey didn’t want to test her luck any more than she already had. “Thank you for seeing me,” she said with a small bow of her head. “I hope you find the reward satisfactory, even with the loss of my...valuable organics.”

“It will do,” Tenro said. He waved a hand and his assistant walked her out.

She was brought to a courtyard, blank and sterile. The woman stood silently with her and minutes stretched into hours until the sun was high in the sky. She heard the hover bike before she saw it, gliding through an opening. Rey didn’t recognize the person on the bike. Dressed in black, their face was obscured by a big hood and a helmet. But she knew Sith tech when she saw it. It was another Knight, one she had never encountered before. He got off the bike and walked over. He was small and compact. The black visor cleared and Rey could make out dark eyes, almost black. 

“Is this her?” The Knight spoke to the assistant, ignoring Rey. He pushed back his long coat and she saw knives surrounding his thighs in garter holsters 

“Yes,” the woman said, waving a hand, bored.

Rey got to her feet and glanced at his bike. “Am I...you’re taking me on that?”

“Sorry, does it not meet your approval?” the man asked, voice muffled by the helmet.

“It’s fine,” Rey muttered. She wasn’t looking forward to having to drive for potentially hours on the back of a bike made sleek for speed but not much for passengers. 

“You can hold me real tight, if you like,” he said, voice curling with a smug smile.

Rey scowled as he got on and she settled herself behind him. She was forced close to him by the cut of the bike. “Does he trust you?” she said, voice low, even though the assistant was gone and the courtyard was empty.

The Knight turned his head a bit. “No. But if he did, he trusts me the most.”

Rey would have to live with that. She squeezed the bike with her hips as it rumbled to life and slipped forward. Eventually she grew too tired as they climbed high in the sky, shooting forward like a bullet, and she wrapped an arm around his middle, feeling hard plated body armor underneath. 

They drove for a long time. Rey once again wondered just how big Coruscant really was. The city had sprawled out so far she’d never seen land untouched by human hands. Ben had; he’d told her about it before, back...way back when they were different people. Those people were still inside, but buried deep and kept safe.

By the time they slowed and the bike settled on a landing pad, Rey didn’t know where she was. She hadn’t paid enough attention to know where the building was, or how to get there. She glanced around and didn’t recognize any of the buildings huddled in close.

“Go in,” the Knight instructed as she stood there, unsure of what to do next. She was, for now, a pawn, a product to be handed off between crime bosses. 

Rey walked toward the dark looming entrance. The door slid to the side and a woman stood there, white skin, white hair, black markings on her face. She was wearing all red, the crimson like blood against her pale complexion.

“Follow me,” the woman said.

Rey did as she was asked, suddenly nervous not because she was stepping into enemy territory, but because she was close to  _ Ben _ . He was somewhere in this building. She had found him, after weeks of hacking and searching through all of Finn’s networking, and she was here.

The inside of the Sith HQ was not what she expected. It was lit fairly well--especially compared to Orri Tenro’s blackout design--though colors slid through the light, giving her a headache. It shifted from red to blue to green to white to black to purple and again. The corridors were blank and dark, but there was enough life here to make Rey believe this really was a business, not just a castle with a king on his throne and his workers doing well, all the work.

“And the payment has been sent,” her guide said suddenly as an implant in her arm beeped. “In case you were worried about Tenro coming after you.”

Rey hadn’t, but then she wondered how Ben could see her. Before, of course, realizing that this place was probably completely covered by cams. He’d  _ seen _ her. And he paid for her to come here. It was the one part of her plan she couldn’t be one hundred percent sure about. She hadn’t known if he would, but the Sith had more money than any other illegal outfit; she thought they could afford it.

The two women stopped at a lift and got in. There were no walls, no ceiling and Rey felt a weird vertigo pull at her brain as it brought them higher still than they already were. 

“This is a private elevator,” the woman told her, as if she truly were giving Rey a tour.

The lift stopped.

The doors pushed open and Rey stepped out, hands fisted at her sides, her heart pounding in her ears. The room was large, with windows all around except for a wall of screens on her right. A man with a shock of orange hair sat there, and a lean woman in a full bodysuit was also there, seemingly doing nothing but lounging back in a seat.

Rey blinked and her eyes were drawn to...she almost stopped walking. There was, for lack of a better word, a throne in the room. Big and black with veins of red. So, the  _ Supreme Leader _ was indeed a king in a castle.

Rey dragged her eyes over the form sitting there. Ben, but not. His face was bare, showing the scar, his hair free in waves of black that were bold against his pale skin. He was wearing just about the same thing as always: black everything, though his jacket was a bit more tailored and his hands were bare. Her eyes flickered to his right, black and red biomech. 

She took a deep breath and stopped a few feet in front of him.

He looked at her. She couldn’t read his face, and he didn’t betray any emotion. Rey didn't know if she was supposed to speak first.

“Ap’lek got you here all right,” Ben finally said. Rey almost jumped. His voice was deeper and different from the one in her memory. It had no softness to it. 

“He did,” she said lamely. Obviously he had, since she was standing here. She swallowed, eyes sliding to the woman on the right. 

“Tenro told me about your determination,” Ben continued. He sat forward, forearms resting on his knees. On anyone else it would have looked relaxing, but on him right now it looked like a challenge, like he could bound out of his seat and into action in a split second. “Why did you want to get to the Sith so badly? You don’t have a bomb on you, do you?”

Rey let out a breath. She could do this. She had to keep playing if she was going to be able to stay here. She had to prove that she could hold up against anything. She’d gotten here; she could do the rest. “I don’t. If I wanted to kill you I would be more creative.” Rey’s eyes shifted to the blade that was resting against the arm of the throne he was in. “Maybe with your own blade.”

The woman, who had been so relaxed, suddenly had a knife in her hand and was standing. Bodyguard then. Rey kept her eyes on Ben.

There was the tiniest twitch of his lips. “It’s okay, Bazine,” he said, straightening his back. “Rey is a guest, not an assassin.”

Bazine muttered something Rey couldn’t catch as she settled back on her seat. The red haired man at the computer snorted softly.

Ben got to his feet, his eyes never leaving Rey’s. He stepped forward, towering over her. Her heart skipped in her chest. 

He held out his right hand. 

All the times he had told he was a monster, had tried to push her away by saying he was more machine than man, and here he was, offering that part of him to her. She’d been waiting for this choice for so long that she hardly believed it was real. She’d dreamed about it and her feelings had shifted and changed since that night at the hospital.

Rey dropped her gaze to the biomech hand, the fingers lined in red, the open palm. They had an audience, but she didn’t really care.

She stepped forward, her own hand reaching out, nearly trembling. Her skin slid against his hand and her eyes met his.

There was a hint of softness in his. She forced herself not to break out in a grin as his fingers curled around hers. 

She was here, she was his, and she didn’t care where they were, who they were, or what they were doing. She was never leaving his side.


End file.
